


Expose me

by headraline



Category: Mr. Robot (TV)
Genre: "What if...", F/F, F/M, Finally completed, I dunno I just couldn't find any in-story pairing that I liked except for Shayla but she's, I'm kinda sorry but not really, Other, Seriously don't read if you haven't watched the entire series, Spoilers, This Is STUPID, crap I haven't written female ocs in forever, it's still a kind of pointless thing I did, this turned out better than I expected, um
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-03
Updated: 2016-02-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 13:07:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 53,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5627671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/headraline/pseuds/headraline
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elliot and Darlene team up with an unlikely ally to tie up some loose ends. It's both intriguing and terrifying, for Elliot, to be in the presence of a person that has nothing to hide.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. l00se.3nds

**Author's Note:**

> Major Spoilers for the whole series. Seriously there are a lot of things spoiled in here so this is your final chance to watch the series first and then come back if you want.  
> I can't stress this enough, SPOILERS.  
> That being said, I usually avoid writing original characters in fanfictions, because... whenever i read stories with ocs, especially if paired with some of the mains, those end up being really crappy ocs, bordering on marysues/garystus and generally piss me off for how badly written they are (mostly because they are the result of the author projecting themselves inside and wanting to be liked by the main character, which results in terrible, terrible mistakes. I've been there and done that, when I was fourteen). And I'd never want to be guilty of that. But even when not writing ocs I'm not that good of a writer, so what the hell. I just couldn't find any in-story pairing that really did it for me, except for Shayla, but she... well, if you're still here you know what happened to her.  
> And I didn't wanna risk ruining her by attempting to write a "what if" au where what happened didn't happen. I'm not good at that either. Okay enough with my bullshit rants, let's get this show on the road.  
> (I'm scared, I haven't written in forever).

 

“Elliot, focus. What do you remember from the night those thugs killed Shayla?”

There she was again. He knew that she meant well, he knew that she only wanted to protect him from people who would want to hurt him… or from himself. Probably both. She was his freaking sister, of course she wanted what was best for him.

But pestering him like this? Wasn’t gonna work. He hated the question, _what do you remember_ , because it had the power to make him start questioning everything. _Shit, I’m a schizo, I’m out of my goddamn mind, how do I even know if what I remember is real, if I even do find something I actually remember…_

“Darlene, I…”

“No!” she stopped him before he could even try… she had gotten good at detecting bullshit excuses before they were even formulated, “Don’t you start with the puppy eyes to cover up the fact that you’re flippin’ out! I know you are, but this is enough. Our plan worked, there’s a fucking revolution up everyone’s ass, and with _that_ done we can finally sit down and at least fucking _try_ to make you a little bit safer.”

At least safe from loose ends in the form of asshole drug dealers. She was right. That could be done. Shit, they’d done the impossible, took down something so big it was unthinkable to even imagine it going down… wiping some lowlifes who deserved it off the face of Earth would be piece of cake in comparison. Was he scared? Maybe. Of them? No.

He just didn’t want to poke around a wound that was finally starting to patch itself up. Hell, he hated that it was even getting better. He hated that what he thought would happen was actually happening. Shayla was slowly becoming just a thing to say. _I once knew a girl who died. With the added bonus that she died because of me._

But he wasn’t scared that pursuing those assholes would reopen the wound. He was actually scared that it wouldn’t. That he was so desensitised, so tired that he couldn’t even be sad anymore.

“Elliot! You’re spacing out again.” Darlene’s voice raised at the end of whatever she was ranting about –fuck, he hadn’t been listening – “Come on. Please, tell me you have something on them, so we can make sure they don’t fucking show up at our doorstep or screw us over in other ways…”

She was right. She was so right… those guys had seen both their faces, knew his name… if they wanted to be safe without changing cities, those guys needed to disappear. He could do this.

_I can do this. I got this. I got this._

They started out from the beginning: Shayla was working as a waitress in that western themed place when they kidnapped her, so clearly someone got close to her there, which means that someone in there had ties with Vera –and was potentially a danger to all other people in that place. Hacking the employees got them nowhere, all more or less clean, some more grey than others but no actual criminal minds among them… just the occasional cheating husband or secretly bulimic girlfriend and things like that. Nothing worth poking their noses into, not like that. So it had to be a customer. Probably a regular. Probably someone who was the mediator between the junkie waitress and the source where she got the drugs from.

It wasn’t much, but it was a start. He had to admit, he was happy Darlene had his back on this… he would hack everyone behind the safety of his screen, and his sister would go poke around, actually talk to people.

Elliot was almost proud of himself: through all his anxiety, all his issues and instability, he even found himself recovering a bit of that protective brotherly shit you see in movies; giving the stink-eye to douchebags trying to chat Darlene up (even though she didn’t really need it) and even tagging along with her at the bar, when they finally singled out one specific douchebag who was potentially the person who sold Shayla out. Sure, he stayed in a corner, hidden in his hoodie and not talking to anyone except to the redhead waitress that served him whatever drink he pretended to order; even though he didn’t as much as say more than five words to her... but it still was something.

“Nothing else, I’m good, thanks.” He looked briefly at her before concentrating again on his sister chatting up the stereotypical fatass dealer… as inconspicuously as he could, trying to look like he was playing apps on his phone and not being a creeper.

 _Who am I kidding? I’m totally a creeper._ He didn’t like it when people got close to him, but he was almost glad when the redhead waitress came back to pester him –it was a good plan, if he could pretend he was hitting on a waitress he wouldn’t look like he was playing spy kids, and it wouldn’t be as obvious that he and Darlene were there together.

Also, he supposed out of all the people inside the joint that they hacked, she wouldn’t be so unpleasant to hang out with. He could hear himself recite everything he found out about her before even meeting her the first time. _Alina Navchenko, half Russian and half from Texas, a tendency to date stupid douchebags all the way through high school until her interest in Muay Thai made her actually give a crap bout herself. Seems to have taken a sabbatical on dating… good for her, judging by her shitty taste in men. Girls she chose a bit better, she experimented once or twice with close friends but there was always too much sisterly affection for those to turn into actual things, she occasionally watches softcore porn and is a bit of a nerd. As far as lives and profiles go… she is as easily accessible as it goes. I found out everything pretty easily, and not much of what she did was particularly hidden. Her Russian drunkard father who almost beat her to death after blaming her the umpteenth time for her mother’s passing –contingent to her birth – was both on police records and in phone conversations with concerned friends; as was the guy that she accidentally killed in self-defence while he was trying to rape her. The case didn’t last very long, the guy had already multiple accusations on his back, was an ex-con, and despite her being a black belt or whatever the shit it is in Thai, he had the drop on her at first and she had bruises and cuts to prove it. Not to mention the horrifyingly embarrassing medical reports of the cuts and scratches in her crotch from the moment the guy tried to actually stab her in the pussy for resisting him… which was probably what made her snap and literally beat the crap out of her assailant._

_Well fucking done if you ask me. One less piece of trash in this world._

It wasn’t the fact that she killed a guy in self-defence that impressed Elliot; he found that quite mundane actually… fight or flight was obvious, basic, intrinsic in human nature. No, he was baffled by the fact that this girl was relatively open about it… didn’t tell you her entire life story if you didn’t ask, but her whole terrible tale was there, not only on legal records and whatever bullshit archives, but also in text messages, he actually relived part of the night that almost had this stranger end up like Shayla… he could still remember the Facebook messages he read.

 _“hey, we’re missing you at the party, where r u?”_  
“can’t really talk rn, I’m at the ER”  
“what? Wth happened? Want me to come get you?”  
“not now. Some asshole jumped me and tried to rape me, but I stabbed the bastard.”  
“oh my god are you serious? Fuck, are you ok?”  
“doc says it’s not too bad. I’ll call you later if you still wanna pick me up, but cops are coming over to interrogate me now, gotta turn off the phone.”

All his life, Elliot had hacked into other people’s and found out things that they were trying to hide, secret perversions, misfortunes, or even simply sides of themselves they didn’t want others to know about. And yet, here this girl was: all he could find out about her, the good, the bad and the worst, was all stuff that anyone could get by simply asking her. It was intriguing and at the same time terrifying, to be in the presence of someone who didn’t feel the need to hide anything.

He was startled out of his thoughts by the rattling of his plate and glass. The redhead _–Alina, come on Elliot, you know her name and she has a fucking tag on her shirt –_ had just sat down on the other side of his table.

“So… are you just too shy to talk to her, or should I kick the shit outta you?”

 _Shit, am I really that obvious?_ “I’m not… I wasn’t… looking at her.”

Messy red curls spilled forward from her shoulder as she ducked her head towards him. “Really?” she said, voice dropping to an almost conspiratorial low, “Because someone should. The guy she’s chatting with? Not good news. So if you’re not looking at her because you wanna be her prince charming, then… what the hell?”

That got Elliot’s attention. _She knows something. I’m crazy, but I’m not an idiot, she’s trying to tell me she knows something, or has noticed something._ “You – what do you want?”

“Don’t freak out.” There was a gentle smile on her face, and she seemed to be really trying to be nice to him. _So why is freaking out exactly what I’d like to do the most right now?_ “When you’re a waitress, eavesdropping comes as a pretty solid skill. You can find out shit people likes, angle for tips to the people who sound most likely to give them out, and generally adapt your behaviour to what the people you’re serving would respond the most to. I’ve heard your girlfriend--”

“Sister.” _Fuck I didn’t need to specify that. Why did I tell her?_

“—sister, then… I’ve heard her ask around about Shayla.”

_Crap._

Alina paused for a second after that, but it was too late. She now had Elliot’s undivided attention… and he supposed her not-hiding attitude was as much of a “maze” as his all-hiding one was. He could tell she was making an effort, to be open with a stranger. He took advantage of the time she spent hesitating to study her. He guessed she was kind of pretty. A far cry from your typical all-American belle, with big breasts and full lips, but still. The relative lack of curves on her chest didn’t mean she was bad to look at. She had nice skin –and the uniform left a lot of it exposed – except for the odd scar here and there, be it from Muay Thai or from her two little “accidents”, he wasn’t sure… she also was… well, she was a martial artist and had the body for it. And Elliot had a tendency to lie, but even he wouldn’t lie about sneaking peeks at her ass once or twice. And legs. And—ok, fine, sort of everything. He took his time cataloguing every detail, with the same obsessiveness he took in hacking everything about anyone. He saw all the little things, and imperfections, the cheekbones a bit too strong for a girl’s face, the moles and freckles that come with being a ginger, the slight bags under her eyes from working crappy shifts. She definitely wasn’t perfect. But she still was kind of nice to look at.

“I still don’t know what happened to her… I was off that night and I—if only I hadn’t traded shifts that night. I might have been there. I would’ve kicked the crap out of any fucker who tried to…” brown eyes speckled with green hid behind tired eyelids, and she paused again, to take a shaky breath, “I don’t really know what you guys are trying to find out or why, but if you’re going to get back at the people who wasted Shayla, I want in.”

She was practically whispering at this point, with a smile that didn’t really reach her eyes, leaning over towards him so that onlookers would think she was flirting with him. It didn’t really fool Elliot, he was better than that at reading people and the forty or so seconds she’d been in front of him were more than enough for him to dissect her facial expressions and figure out that she was every bit as uncomfortable as he was –which, he supposed, was a bit of a reassurance – but still… “Why?”

The plate and glass clinked again, as she got off the table on the pretence of getting closer to him. _Please don’t touch me._ Surprisingly, she didn’t. “Look, I didn’t know her that well, but I liked her. She was one of the good ones. And didn’t deserve to be gutted by some jackass psycho with a grudge.” Her smile turned just a little bitter, “See, I have this problem where I constantly try to help a sister out. And I feel like I failed so bad.”

He tilted his head to follow her gaze, not caring about his hoodie slipping off his head. “Revenge… it won’t bring Shayla back.” He knew he was being hypocritical, but he didn’t want another dead girl on his conscience. Despite all evidence that he was more likely to get killed than her, all things considered.

She still fake-flirted, leaning both her hands on the edge of the table. She had calluses on her fingers and two broken nails. “Then why are _you_ doing this?”

 _Good question. To even the score? To clean up my own mess?_ “I… we have our reasons.”

“Good. And I won’t ask what they are, but I don’t wanna see another girl screwed over by that douchebag, I don’t care if you two think you know what you’re doing.” She said, with just a bit more cutting edge to her voice. Clearly, protecting other girls was a touchy subject for her. She was probably quite the feminist. “That guy is bad news, and your sister should get up and leave. Right now.”

Elliot glanced over at Darlene. She still hadn’t got the guy to whack out his phone to get her number (not that she would give him a real number, it was just to get to the phone to hack him)… it had only been a minute after all, but still… he saw in first person that despite being mostly a bunch of dumbasses, these guys didn’t fuck around when it came to killing people.

“Okay.” He said, pulling his hoodie back and standing up. “Can you do me a favour, Alina?”

She nodded.

“Say goodbye to me, but fit the words **time’s up** somewhere in there. Loudly. Then go, we meet outside in three minutes.” _Also, don’t die. I don’t want you to die._

This time, the redhead didn’t hesitate. She pulled the little marker out of her order notebook and took Elliot’s hand, writing her number on it in a rather unpretty scrawl. “Okay, cutiepie, my time’s up, gotta get back to work; but do call me, yeah? I’d love to hang out some more.”

With that, she headed back to whatever shitty staff room the place had, making a point of swaying her hips at him, not that he was complaining, but also subtly glancing sideways at Darlene. That waitress probably wasn’t a genius hacker, but she had enough brains to recognize a code when she saw one. It was smart. Respond to a code message, no matter who delivers it. _Typical hacker anonymity… I wonder how much of it she understood._

 

The actual meeting together with Darlene was awkward, to say the least. For starters, Alina did take the three minutes to change out of the skimpy shorts and back into her regular clothes for the night, which were yoga pants and a baggy sweater, and he was stupid enough to comment about it.

“You look different with clothes on.” Which, of course, sent Darlene into fits of laughter and sisterly teasing. Elliot blamed the momentary lapse on the stress and tiredness giving him no filter between his brain and his mouth, but Darlene obviously was immediately convinced that he wanted to “hit that”. He guessed wouldn’t mind to, but that wasn’t the point.

 _I don’t even know this girl, why would I even… forget it. Let’s just forget it._ “Can we just forget it and focus on the important things?”

“Oh come on, Elliot I’m just fucking with you…” Darlene laughed a bit more but seemed to have finally got it out of her system, and turned to the other girl. Elliot started feeling outnumbered. “Okay babe, you said you want to help… fine. But what can you do for us, and how do we trust you?”

The redhead instinctively took the cigarette that Darlene offered her, before remembering that she didn’t smoke and didn’t even know how to take a drag. She figured she’d try just this once, if only because it’d be rude not to, after she accepted the thing into her hands, but it just sent her coughing while Darlene took the cigarette back, mostly unimpressed but giving her one sympathetic slap on the back to help her out. That was the second awkward thing –though Elliot felt relatively relieved by the fact that it was mostly slightly embarrassing for their new acquaintance, and not for him. He hated being in the spotlight. Obviously.

“Well…” Alina said, once the coughing subsided, “I can be the muscle of the team.” She wasn’t even offended by Darlene almost scoffing at her petite frame, “Shayla was a great gal, and we got close quickly. She once made a passing remark about her genius techie boyfriend. If I’m half right about who you are, then you know I’m not bullshitting. And you obviously didn’t know my name from the stupid nametag.”

“Why—why wouldn’t it be from that?” At this point it was pointless to even try and deny it, but Elliot wanted to maintain at least a bit of distance. But the way she smiled at him, again, was starting to make him think that plan was already shot to hell.

“My boobs aren’t big enough for anyone to stare at. My nametag doesn’t get noticed as much as the others.”

_You should wear it on your back pocket._

“You should wear it on your back pocket, because damn girl, with an ass like that who cares about boobs? Yum.” That was the third awkward thing of the meeting. The comment came from Darlene. “But seriously… give us a good reason.”

The waitress sighed. “I could have sold you out to that asshole right then and there.” _True._ “I want him and whoever has the puppet strings destroyed, as much as you do, I don’t care what it takes and have nothing to lose."  _Also true._ "Also I know the names of most of the regular sleazebags that come at the bar, might make your research easier. Hack me some more if you don’t trust me. Tell you what, hot stuff, if you have any problems just call me, I’ll tell you all my passwords myself.”

Well, she was obviously very bitter over Shayla’s death. Elliot could find some camaraderie in that, at least. Alina ran a hand on her face; her makeup was a bit smudged and she looked rather tired. She took another deep breath, lowering her eyes and then looking back up at Elliot. “Well, I made my move. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m running on four hours of sleep and I’m beat. Just give me a holler if you want me to help out.”

 _Did that just happen?_ He watched her walk away, coming to the conclusion that the way she swayed her hips was mostly just there, among other things, and then turned to Darlene. _Are we seriously considering dragging another person into this? Isn’t it bad enough that I got Darlene into this in the first place? Is mr. Robot going to come out and try to fuck up my mind with delusional bullshit again?_ He tried to calm himself down relishing in his sister’s presence. He took her hand, she was there, she was real. And so had been that very awkward meeting. “Wh—what do we do now?”

Darlene just shrugged, letting her hair loose with her free hand and bumping shoulders with him. “Well, we know that she can at least take care of herself…” she started, giving him a sideways look that he didn’t find particularly encouraging, “Also you totally want to bone her, that would be a plus.”

“Come on…” he protested with a pointed monotone, but the way his sister looked at him still spilled a crooked smile from his lips.

“What? You _do_ want to bone her, don’t lie to me!” she persisted, moving into his space to peek at him from under his hoodie –she was the only one that got to do this without him flinching. “So, what do you say? Your plan, ultimately your call who’s in and who’s out.”

“I say we go home, sleep on it, do some more research…” _Possibly figure out a failsafe where there isn’t another girl who gets killed because of me,_ “And then decide if we call her or not.”

Darlene bit back a smile. Her brother was seriously messed up, couldn’t talk to people without panicking internally half the time, had hallucinations, selective amnesia and who knew how much other shit; but today he connected with another human being. Sure, probably the shared affection and grief over Shayla had been a deciding factor, but it still remained that, even if he tried to hide it, or maybe even to convince himself that he wasn’t going to for the sake of caution, Elliot had actually already decided that they would call her.

And it was a good thing. Human interaction. It was risky, possibly crazy, but it was progress. It meant that Elliot wasn’t completely locked inside himself yet. Fuck if this was half as good as she thought it was, no matter how grossly cliché it was, she would fucking play matchmaker if she needed to.

After all, Alina didn’t seem to mind Elliot blatantly ogling her butt, so she probably would be cool with that –and she seemed a decent enough person to entrust her brother to.

Because that’s what sisters are for. Being the best fucking wingwoman possible, while they all risk their lives together to tie up loose ends and bring down asshole psychos.

It was going to be a fun week, at the very least.

~~tbc?


	2. n3w.conf1gurati0n

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A plan is formed and information gets shared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! Actually continuing this. Huge shoutout to blacklabcoat for encouraging me to go on, it was just what I needed! :)  
> Sorry nothing much happens in this besides introspection, but it was getting too long and I had to make the cut before it got crazy longer than the previous one.  
> Hope this is still relatable and credible and... not shit.  
> So many things I have to fix and tags I have to add, but I really gotta head to work right now so I'll figure it out later.  
> Ok enjoy bye!  
> Oh and this is grossly unbeta'ed so, sorry about any horrendous mistakes.

Somehow, it was comforting to be alone tonight. Just him, Qwerty in the bowl, Flipper sleeping somewhere on the floor, and the click-clacking of his keyboard. He guessed the pets contributed a lot to the aloneness not turning into loneliness, if only with silent presence, but he felt good about tonight. Didn’t dare to say it out loud, but actually felt like this had a chance of working out.

First things first, he hacked what little cctv was there in the place Alina worked at, if only to watch who came in and out and keep track of the most likely suspects. He was watching the junkie waitress closely –Lisa was her name – and tried to keep an eye on the people who talked to her and how long they lingered in there. He would then tell Alina what he wanted and she’d get the names for him. Hell, with a name _and_ a phone number, it would be stupid easy to discover anything he needed.

_It’s so strange, how it takes so little to take everything away from someone… I hacked Isaac’s phone and destroyed his network, so that means that Vera and the other dude had to build a new one from scratch… it’s been weeks but could they really do that?_

_He’s a fugitive he wouldn’t have that many resources… unless all that shit about him fitting in with the right crew was true and he just hopped on a bandwagon to keep going._

That was the most likely outcome. Ironic, destroy one drug dealer, and the only people who’ll actually benefit from it are the drug dealers who’ll replace them. It made him sick. His grand revolution didn’t seem so grand, taking things into perspective.

Sure, they did a lot of good, and the part about erasing the debts crushing most people’s lives was true, the markets were in complete shambles and banks were having a hard time trying to recover from the massive information loss –no one even knew what to do so it was like the financial flow was just… on hold, like no one even believed what was happening, and it was good, things were moving how they wanted in that aspect, but still. A revolution always brings along chaos one way or another, and a lot of the shell-shocked and the worried fell easily prey of types like Vera and whatever the fuck it was he was working with now.

“Casualties.” Mr. Robot would whisper in his ear, “Every revolution has them. You can’t let small details ruin the big picture, it worked.”

“Shut up. You’re not even real.” _He’s not. He’s not he’s not._

“It doesn’t make a difference. I am very real to you, I’m in your head and you fucking listen to me. You always have, and see? Our plan worked.” The man laughed dryly before flopping down cross-legged near Elliot’s chair. “Now. You go ahead and have fun, playing vengeful hero for Shayla’s memory or whatever, but don’t lie to yourself and try to convince anyone that this isn’t just you killing time and wasting your potential because you don’t have a fucking clue on what you’re gonna do with your life next.”

 _Fuck him._ “Fuck you. You got anything better for me?”

“I’m you, kiddo.” Came the obvious reply. “You don’t, so I don’t either.”

Elliot closed his eyes. He couldn’t deal with that bullshit right now. _Calm down. He’s not here, you’re alone. You’re okay. There’s just you, Qwerty and Flipper, and…_

“Elliot?” _…and Darlene?_

The not so subtle knocking despite it being whatever the fuck a.m. surely sounded like his beloved little sister. “I’m coming, I’m coming, just try to not wake the whole damn neighbourhood up, will ya?” he hissed at her, yanking the door open to let her in as soon as possible.

At least Mr. Robot had disappeared and he could take a breather.

Darlene let herself in and flopped on Elliot’s bed, facing the computers. “Watcha doing? Ooh, spying. Kinky.”

“Darlene… don’t start.” He deadpanned, dropping back to his chair and leaning down to pet Flipper a bit. “Why are you actually here?”

She bit her lip and seemed to think about it a bit. It was always bad when she had to think how to phrase something to him. “Well… what are we going to tell to the other guys at fsociety?”

 _Good point. But easy answer._ “Nothing. This is my mess and I don’t want any of them taking risks they can simply avoid.”

His sister rolled over so she was looking at him upside down and smiled at him. She was cute. She was also clearly trying to distract him from something by being cute. “See, I totally share the sentiment, but still… we’re going to _have_ to tell them something, since, I mean…” _Mumbling? It doesn’t become you, sister,_ “Well, we’re probably going to disappear around town once or twice and…”

 _Ah._ That was it. Elliot’s lips slowly tilted in a small smirk. “And is there someone who would notice that you’re gone? Is that what this is about?” he asked, secretly happy he could finally tease back, “Maybe someone cute that wears a cute scarf over their head?”

“It’s not a scarf! It’s called a… fuck I don’t remember, but still—” Darlene interrupted herself, having fallen headfirst into her brother’s little trap. “Hey, fuck you, okay?”

He actually chuckled at that. This was… refreshing. He didn’t realize how much he missed having a little sister until he actually remembered having one. _Is this what it means to not be completely alone? I could get used to this._ “Just tell her whatever. You’re not gonna be around for a few days and leave it at that. Throw me under the bus if you want, you have to take care of your weirdo brother. We have that one rule for a reason, don’t we?”

They didn’t really need it anymore, but it was good that they still kept at it –after all, Evil Corp wasn’t done yet looking for culprits and/or scapegoats, and they weren’t about to get sloppy now.

“I know, I just… I feel bad about not telling her things.” The pout actually got Elliot off his chair. Darlene was just too cute –no wonder he tried to kiss her when he didn’t remember they were siblings. This time, he just sat on the edge of the bed and hesitantly placed a hand on her cheek.

“Hey. It’s for the better.” It was a shitty thing to do, but it was the right one. “After we’re done, and safe, you can tell her the whole nasty little adventure. But right now, the best thing you can do for her is keep her out of this.”

It was the truth and she knew it. She also loved the fact that Elliot could reach out to her like this, it was a huge improvement from what he had been in the past few… forever. The thought made her smile again. She leaned up and mimicked his movement, creating a half hug of sorts. “How about I take over your screens for a bit and you go shower? You stink.”

Which was Darlene code for “Thank you, Elliot, I love you.”

He just rolled his eyes at her, _I love you too, sister,_ but complied all the same, getting up and moving to the bathroom, dropping his faded grey t-shirt and sweatpants on the way there.

 

The night was over and they decided –like they hadn’t already – that yes, Alina could be useful to them since she already had access to most of the people they wanted to pick off, and also it was seriously good to have someone on board who could kick the crap of mostly anything.

There wasn’t much to go by and her relatively small stature was deceiving, but a couple demonstrations for the gym’s YouTube channel were more than enough. If you see a 5’2’’ girl breaking a hardwood plank with her elbow, you don’t ask what else she can do, you just assume she can do it.

_It’s like being thirteen and scared of girls all over again… only this time it’s for good reason._

Either way, she was valuable, and seemed willing enough to commit to it –he’d still have to test that, but wasn’t sure how to do it to a non-hacker – so there he was, once again trying to not look like a creeper as he waited outside the bar for the end of Alina’s shift.

She jumped, understandably, when he cut into her path, skidding to a halt on her old boots and suppressing a slight gasp. “Jesus, fuck.” She muttered, shaking her head before focusing on him, “Didn’t I give you my number?”

“We don’t do numbers. Come with me.” He nodded her in the direction of the subway, and started leading her towards his apartment. He had briefly thought about stopping at the arcade, but it wasn’t safe.

_The other guys could be there, and it would defeat the purpose of not telling them._

Not that his place was much safer, but it was all they had. He doubted her place was nearly as guarded. Not to mention it would obviously lack in equipment. They changed trains twice, despite still going in the same direction –can never be too careful – and were now sitting in a rather desolate carriage with a sleeping old lady in front of them and a lonely dude trying to reach his girlfriend on the phone on the far end as their only company.

Alina hadn’t said much during the journey, just asking the usual what and where questions that met no real answer as long as they were still on the streets; and was now looking at him. Probably trying to figure him out.

_Shit, what does she want? Does she think I’m crazy? Does she know I am? Crap, what if she doesn’t trust us because I’m crazy? I probably came off as too paranoid with this train shit… Shit, shit, shit what if—_

“Hey.” Her voice cut off his ramblings, “What are you freaking out about in there?”

 _Again, shit._ “N… nothing. Did it look like I was freaking out?” he tried to come off casual, even though it probably wasn’t working. Which was stupid, because he could fool most of the people who knew him –or rather thought they did – or at least he could get them to back off, so why wasn’t it working with this girl?

She seemed puzzled, and uncertain about something. “A bit.” She answered, settling a little more comfortably beside him and looking around the shabby train carriage. “I don’t know, I guess I’m just… trying to figure you out.”

 _Not to sound like a prick, but good luck with that._ He would so sound like a prick. That was exactly why he didn’t say it.

“I’m sorry…” she continued, “I have never done anything like this, before… I mean, you probably know what I saw and did, but it still…” there it was, again, the stubborn willingness to be open, despite the possible discomfort. Elliot found himself actually listening to her, it was disconcerting. And kind of fascinating. “It was all things that were right in front of me, you know what I mean? Curve balls thrown at me, and that I had to deal with or roll over and suffer.” He knew exactly what she meant. “But this… this isn’t about me, and I’m sticking my nose into bigger things than I probably can imagine, and it could all go to shit so fast…”

 _Which begs the question…_ “Why are you okay with doing this, then?” and he genuinely wanted to know. Not that it was surprising. He always wanted to know everything about anyone, Alina wasn’t an exception. She shrugged her shoulders, curling up into herself further.

“I don’t know… maybe I’m just tired of seeing everything being such crap and doing nothing about it, and I figured…” _She’s so small. Kinda reminds me of Darlene like this._ “I really don’t know, I figured that maybe there was more that I could do in this world other than being a waitress in a dodgy pub fighting off assholes trying to grope me.”

In an ideal life, Elliot figured she probably could be so much more. But wasted potential was nothing new, and it wasn’t really his place to feel sorry for her or bullshit like that. Hell, until she crossed paths with Shayla she probably had it better than him. Sure she had seen and outlived her fair share of terror, but at least she made it back.

On the outskirts of normalcy but not quite in, just like them, but she fought and won and wasn’t on the run and why would anyone give that up was beyond him. Then again, she had the “privilege” of not being into hiding because she chose that path herself, so she sort of earned it.

 _All the more reason to not give it up so…_ “Are you sure this is worth it?”

She seemed honestly taken aback at that. “Are you honestly giving me a chance to back out, after I already know your face and your goals?”

 _Yes. I shouldn’t be, but I am. What the fuck._ He just stared at her, looking around her face like something in there could give him an answer, or at least a deflection.

Turned out he didn’t need one, because her expression softened from confusion to acceptance with a tinge of amusement, and she lightly bumped his shoulder. He flinched a bit, but Alina didn’t seem to notice. Or if she did, didn’t seem to care. “You know, it’s nice, what you’re doing. Trying to be all protective and shit.” Elliot frowned a bit. That wasn’t what he was doing… was it? “But truth is, I don’t have much to live for. I have a crappy job I don’t really like, a few acquaintances that don’t really stay in touch, and a gym that’s the only place where I ever feel free.”

It still was more than the average people was willing to give up, but something told him that, despite appearances and first impressions being mediocre at best, this girl was anything but. “And I’m tired of just accepting that bad things happen to good people while assholes go unpunished, so what the hell, might as well try and fix what’s in my reach, if you geniuses are down for it.”

That actually earned a smile from Elliot. Funny, they were very different people, but in that aspect they were actually quite similar. Seemed like they both hated doing nothing when there was shit going wrong. He could respect that. Alina reminded him a bit of Krista, in that aspect. Not really equipped to change big things, but genuinely trying nonetheless.

The rest of the train ride was spent in silence, but was surprisingly less awkward than either of them thought it would be.

 

“So, just come and go whenever, my sister breaks in all the time and I kind of gave up…” he said, while opening the door to his apartment, “Feel free to break in as well.”

The fact that he didn’t even see anything unusual with what he was saying anymore was a testament to how accustomed he had grown to Darlene’s breaking and entering.

“I… don’t know how to break into places.” …and to the fact that he was so used to his own lifestyle that he didn’t take into account that some people do not actually pick locks to get into places.

He cleared his voice awkwardly. “I’m, uh… I’m going to give you some keys then, so you won’t be stuck outside if no one’s here…” he was sure he had at least one set of spare keys, he just needed to remember where the hell he hid them. “But I’ll get Darlene to teach you, it’s something you’ll need to know how to do.”

Alina once again was confused, but figured it was a hacker thing. Because this guy was a hacker, there was no denying it, especially looking at the place now. Bit messy, not much to look at, but holy crap that setup. She was an average computer user at best, only playing the occasional videogame and tweaking around with simple things when they didn’t work, so most –if not all – of what she could see in this guy’s room was completely beyond her level of understanding, but she knew just about enough to recognize a mad genius when she saw one.

Of course there was the question why couldn’t he be the one to teach her, but she left it alone for now. It certainly wasn’t their highest priority right now and this Elliot guy came of as a jittery, reserved type. He probably never wanted to be around her more than he had to.

Shit, she probably was a constant reminder that his girlfriend died, no wonder he was uncomfortable with her. Which was too bad, he seemed like a good person, underneath all the weird. She sighed.

“Oh this is going to be a handful.”

“Hmm?” Elliot was busy booting up his stuff, so had stopped paying attention to her for the moment, but she just shook her head.

“Nothing. I like your place. It’s cool.” Generic courtesy statements sounded off to Elliot, coming from such a straightforward person, but when the only explanation was that she actually meant his rundown apartment looked nice… he found it hard to believe. But to each their own, he guessed. He cast a sideways glance at her when he heard her interact with Flipper, predictably making baby voices at the little dog.

The moment Alina scooped her up in her arms and Flipper let her was the second smile of the day, for Elliot. Now that he wasn’t distracted by the skimpy uniform and unpleasant surroundings, he had to admit she really wasn’t a bad person to hang out with in general, and not just nice to look at.

“She’s so cute, where did you get her?”

 _Um._ He should have probably made up some lie about it. Or even flat out told her they’re not there to make friends and have things to do, but all that came out was “I stole her from a dude that was abusing her.”

One second of confused staring. “What?”

One was enough to send Elliot spiralling down another mildly paranoid train of thought, _She’s gonna think I’m a weirdo, I am a weirdo, why the fuck are we even talking about this, we should concentrate—_

“That’s awesome, man.” And just like that, one light hearted chuckle and one nuzzle towards the little puppy’s face interrupted said train of thought. Well, at least that was out of the way.

Flipper was let go and free to go curl herself up somewhere near her little bowl of food, happy to have received double the amount of scratchies for the day, and it finally seemed like they could get on with the important stuff.

“So how are we gonna do this?”

 _Yes, thank you._ He could work with this. Hacking and tearing apart people’s lives, hunting down asshole drug dealers, those things he was comfortable with. It was his territory and he knew how to move in there. “Okay, so I hacked into the pub’s security and kept a close eyes on most of the regulars… you see this guy talking to Lisa?”

It wasn’t the same guy Darlene was trying to approach two nights prior, but was a suspect as well.

“Lisa… you guys actually get to know everything, huh.” It wasn’t a question. She was finally feeling the impact of having no safety. Better late than never, figured Elliot, but not relevant right now.

 _Don’t feel sorry for her. Focus. It wouldn’t even make a difference for her, why would she even care._ He took a deep breath and nodded, continuing. “In this frame he gave her something, here.” He drawled, freezing the recorded image, “So he either is her dealer or did the delivery for him.”

Alina nodded, getting up from where she was sitting on his bed and coming over to lean towards the screen and actually see the guy. “Either way it’s a lead, huh?” she commented, putting one hand on the chair behind Elliot’s back and the other on the desk, to squint at the image. Elliot flinched slightly again while she kept on talking. “I think that’s Fred. Funny, I used to think he was a lowlife and kind of an asshole, but that there were way worse people than him out there.”

“There probably are.” _If only on the grounds that there’s no real limit to the worse. He has a dead wife and a son he neglects and that will probably become just another deadbeat just like his dad, hints of depression and a nasty alcohol problem, but so far he always stayed on the meek side of the business, handing out joints and hits without ever even getting his hands on a gun._

_Not that it makes him less responsible for all the addicts whose life he contributes to ruining, but there is worse. There’s so much worse._

He frowned to himself and Alina lowered her head, causing her hair –messy and long – to spill over and brush again Elliot’s outstretched hand on the mouse, making him flinch again.

Finally, she seemed to have picked up on that. “I’m sorry, am I… doing something wrong?” she asked, putting some distance between them and stepping back.

Elliot breathed a small sigh of relief before processing her question and thinking about how to put it. This felt both like his first meeting with Shayla all over again and completely different at the same time. Awkwardness and curiosity were still both there, just on different grounds. “It’s just… a bit awkward, I don’t… usually like people around.”

Oh and there was also the unnerving fact that there were less things he could hide behind –Shayla had found out little by little about how he was, what he was… Alina was being bombarded with the truth right away, and to her credit she was taking it remarkably in stride.

“So this is unusual, for you?” she asked, going all the way back to sit on the mattress.

_Define unusual. It’s unusual for me to have someone over? Not that much, not with how Darlene constantly intrudes in here to remind me she actually gives a shit, is it unusual for me to talk to someone? Yes and no, I do kind of talk to people, I just don’t usually tell the truth. I haven’t been all that open with you either. I mean I haven’t lied, but you haven’t got much more than two or three syllables per question._

_It’s actually kind of an unfair deal, here I am, with everything I could want to know about you, and here you are, with just my name, the vague knowledge that I knew Shayla and little else; and you’re supposed to trust me just like that._

“Yeah it’s… unusual.” _I wonder what would Krista say about this. Probably something along the lines of “people tend to trust the ones with more knowledge than them, because they think they’ll make better choices and not get them hurt”._

_Bullshit._

Yet it was exactly what Alina was doing –sure, she didn’t have that much of a choice, but still… sat on his bed, legs crossed and oversized flannel pooling in her lap, she nodded at him. “Good. I like unusual.”

_I hate unusual, it makes me feel unprepared._

“Just tell me if I step over any lines, and I’ll back off, alright?”

Again! It was driving Elliot crazy. Brutal acceptance, was it possible she had no curiosity whatsoever? People didn’t hold back their prodding to types like him, they always tried to _help_ him, or _heal_ him, or _save_ him… Shayla had tried too… discreetly, almost sweetly, reaching out to him from the distance he placed her to and without forcing anything –which was probably why it started working eventually – but this girl. Who the fuck was she? Who did she think she was? They didn’t even know each other so why wouldn’t she act like everyone else and try to get him to “come out of his shell”? Does she simply not care? Or was she another one? A person who understands different, and understands the need for one’s own space…

“Alright.” _This could work._  
  
And it kind of scared him that it actually could.

_~~tbc_


	3. forw4rd.butt0n

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things start stepping into motion with another late night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God this is going so slowly I swear to fucking everything.  
> I just want it to be good.  
> Originally it was supposed to go on a bit more and contain some more hacking already, but it's a good thousand words longer than the previous ones as it is, and I'd like to at least maintain some sort of consistency.  
> This is just as hard as I remembered.  
> Oh, well.  
> Enjoy.
> 
> (still grossly unbeta'ed. will correct errors when I find them, pinkie promise)

Well, that was a turn of events. At least in Elliot’s mind. Not every day he let a near stranger right in the middle of his comfort zone without having inner anxiety attacks. Sure, he had all the information he could possibly ask for about her, but still. She didn’t really belong in there.

But, again, she was trying. And being kind of nice about it.

_So why can’t I even bring myself to talk to her? I gotta get a grip on myself she’s not gonna bite my head off, I mean look at her, she’s clearly as uneasy as I am if not more. What do normal people do, when it gets this quiet?_

He glanced toward the kitchen part of his apartment. It had been a good twenty minutes, but normal people ask about that shit, and better late than ever, right?

“Um. Do you… want something to…” _This is painful._

He was complete crap at being a host and he knew it, putting himself through it for the sake of breaking the silence just didn’t look worth it. Luckily, she really was as awkward as him, jumping to her feet and shaking her head. “Oh no, not really I just… so we’re doing this, right? I’m going to approach Fred on my next shift and… what else?”

“Get his phone number.” His brain supplied, as he stood up as well, if only to not let her be the only one standing around like an idiot.

“Right, right, phone number. I bring it to you so you can work your hacker magic, and then…” she was rambling. Her mind had probably caught up with her with the fact that what they were doing was dangerous, and potentially lethal. She was obviously nervous and fidgeting. Elliot stopped paying attention to what she was saying, clearly trying to psych herself up in a failed attempt at looking “pumped” rather than nervous, and instead watched her, turning this way or the other as she spoke, fiddling with a stray lock of hair, leaving sentences unfinished… it was kind of endearing.

“Hey. Hey.” He called her to get her attention, “Calm down. It’s going to be okay.” He offered, despite having no actual certainty about that. He had also got right in front of her, to stop her pacing and get her to look at him so she would listen. He didn’t physically stop her, but blocking her path in the already scarce space of the apartment wasn’t exactly hard, and it still meant to be right up someone’s face. She smelled nice.

“Elliot, I brought takeout!” and of course Darlene would get to see this. He closed his eyes, feeling the beginning of a headache, but chose to just say nothing for the sake of getting the hell to work, hoping his sister was up to the same task and not in the mood to screw with him. “Oh hey. You’re here. Irina, right?”

“Alina. Um… hi?” Elliot looked between the two women in his apartment and how they seemed to be regarding each other. He knew for a fact that Darlene knew all too well Alina’s name and misspelled it on purpose, probably to get a reaction of some sorts to… study her? He wasn’t sure what she was looking for.

_I guess this is how girls feel when their psycho brothers surprise them alone with a boy even if nothing’s going on. There probably should be some irony to appreciate about being on the other side of the fence, but if there is, it’s going well over my head. This is ridiculous._

Either way, he would have thought that Darlene would get nothing from Alina’s reaction… or rather non-reaction; as he would classify a blank, matter-of-fact correction and hesitant greeting. Yet the look on his sister’s face told him she got exactly what she wanted, somehow –he was good at reading people, and her especially. But whatever that was, he’d let her do her thing and not stick his nose where she could bite it off: bad as he was at actually interacting with people, he knew a “don’t step between two lionesses” situation when he saw one, and for whatever reason Darlene seemed to be intent on “appraising” Alina’s worth, it would be better for everyone involved if he just let her and pretended not to see what she was doing. He just moved to get the food from her.

“Hey, yeah, takeout. I’ll get some plates and heat this up.”

_Hoping it won’t come out of the microwave smelling like CPU cooling paste._

Busying himself with the food at least gave him the perfect opportunity to observe the girls and understand whether they were going to antagonize each other or play nice.

“Sorry, I’d have brought more if I knew we had guests…” _well what do I know. That doesn’t seem too bad._ “But you know… it’s not like I have a brother capable of things, like, I don’t know, fucking telling me. Right, Elliot?” _What?_

Alina held back a giggle, some of the previous tension lifting from her shoulders as she turned towards Darlene. “It’s okay, Darlene, I’m not that hungry, besides…” her voice took on a mischievous note as she got closer, “If it comes to the worst, we can always chop off a piece of your brother and cook it… some of the unused parts he doesn’t need for hacking.”

That one had Darlene literally laughing out loud. “Pahahahah, ew, gross!” they had clearly very specific ideas about which pieces Elliot supposedly didn’t need, and his sister found it very amusing, as she took a couple more seconds of laughter, before nodding to herself. “I like you, you’re cool.”

_I suppose you’re never too old for dick jokes. Well, at least they seem to get along, that’s one bullet dodged._

Not that it would have mattered much anyway, they weren’t there to become the fucking Teletubbies together, they had stuff to do and didn’t necessarily have to like each other to do it… but being able to at the very least coexist sure made things less stressful for his anxiety-riddled brain.

The following two hours were spent talking business –finally – and they all planned how and when Alina could approach the people they’re interested in; whether they could find out about who the new suppliers around were and if they were tied to Fernando Vera at all.

“I don’t think I can make any names, since everybody knows the most drugs I ever took is ibuprofen…” she was sitting cross-legged at the foot of his bed again, while Darlene had taken to sit right on his lap, across from where Alina was standing right now, half-empty takeout Tupperware strewn on the mattress between them.

“Well we all have to fight the Red Wizard. Up top, sister!”

Elliot was extremely uncomfortable, both because of the period jokes and Darlene’s very close proximity –he was okay with it generally, just not so much when there were also other people around… it made them think he was a kind of approachable that he really was not.

That stupid douche Ollie still thought they were “bros” or friends or whatever.

“Either way, I’m not supposed to know anything about who deals what, but Fred’s a regular and I’m Lisa’s friend, so I have a bit of wiggle room, if I can choose my words the right way.” That was promising. He set out to listen more carefully, now that they were back to talking about stuff that made actual sense, and absentmindedly rested his chin atop his sister’s head. Darlene froze for a second but she too kept listening, barely suppressing a big smile that her brother completely missed, being behind her and all. Alina was interested and confused by the dynamic between those two, but didn’t ask. Not yet, anyways… there were so many things she wanted to know and so much stuff took priority over « _Hey, so what’s the deal with your brother?»_ it wasn’t really the right moment. “Either one of you can drop by tomorrow night, right before the end of my shift. I should have something for you guys by then.”

“Wow, that’s some confidence, petal. Pinkie promise?” pet names and a bit of smartassery.

 _Darlene actually likes her._ He didn’t really know why he was so satisfied with that particular tidbit of information, but Alina’s response also was encouraging: “Scout’s honor, captain.” Tossed back with a smile and a wink. She either liked Darlene back as well or was at least comfortable enough to humor her.

Alina’s smile was broken by a barely covered yawn and a glance to the clock on the wall. “Well. It’s almost five and it’s gonna be a gym afternoon.” She said, gathering the stuff from the mattress before either of the two could protest “I’m just gonna go and try to squeeze some sleep in, if we’re all set for now.”

“You don’t have to do that—” she was already at the sink when Elliot tried to stop her, and he was too slow anyway, having to wait for Darlene to get off him first.

“Dude, it’s ok I’m just dropping everything in the sink, I’m not about to play fucking maid for you!” and that was exactly what she did –not much, but still more than Elliot was used to. Truth to be told he never had any real guest situation so there wasn’t much room for comparison, but still. The whole courtesy shit probably dictated that he shouldn’t let her do any stuff like that, but oh well. She already wiped her hands on her jeans and was now grabbing her dark green duffel.

“Are you sure you don’t want to? I’m sure he wouldn’t mind to see that!” _Darlene, please, stop talking._ It wasn’t like that. It really wasn’t, even though it probably would become like that very soon, if his sister kept throwing mental images at him.

“Aw, damn, I left the bondage maid outfit in my other purse.” She said it while laughing casually, but then again most people use jokes and self-irony to cover up embarrassment or uneasiness. At least it was better than being a bitch about it. “Well, I’m off. Thanks for the takeout.”

“Wait, wait!” there was one thing that Elliot remembered, finally standing up and fishing his pockets, “Here.” He handed her his keys –he could always find his spare set later in the day.

Alina took them hesitantly, making an effort –Elliot almost gratefully took notice – to touch his hand as little as possible. “You sure it’s okay?”

He nodded, shoving both hands back in his pockets and shrugging. “Yeah, I have more.”

“Okay, well. Cheers.” And with one last look between him and Darlene, she was out the door and gone.

There was one long moment of silence during which neither Elliot nor his sister said anything. He let out a long breath, moving to sit back at his computer, when Darlene’s high voice nearly had him jump out of his bones.

“Dude!”

“What?” he whipped towards her and looked at her like a deer in headlights.

She looked back at him like an asshole truck driver with no mercy. “You so want to bone her!”

Finally, Elliot rolled his eyes at her. “And what if I do?” He really didn’t. Or rather, he wouldn’t mind to, he had eyes and a working hormone system, but it wasn’t exactly his top priority at the moment. Especially since most of his recent sex life took place while he was doped up on morphine or high on whatever Shayla had brought along for the day –he usually barely even remembered the sex, it was mostly Shayla’s presence he was aware of.

 _Sometimes I wonder whether it even really happened or not…_ but that was a different point entirely.

The tail-end of that train of thought must have shown on his face, because Darlene’s expression softened and she relented a bit. “Nothing, nothing!” she assured, raising her hands in mock-surrender, “It’s just cute, watching you all ruffled and shit.”

He just shook his head a bit and smiled at her. “Shut up.” Of course, the words didn’t come off nearly as grouchy as they could have, considering he pulled in for a hug –and the moments when he was the one to initiate contact always were Darlene’s favourite. “What do _you_ think of her?”

She hummed, cradling her face in her brother’s neck and thinking about everything she just saw. “I kind of like her. She’s cool.” She decided, “Trying a bit too hard to look casual about the whole thing and putting up a tough girl front that we can only hope she can actually back up, or else it’s going to mess her up real bad when the shit hits the fan… but other than that, she’s definitely one of the good ones. Or, you know, at least not one of the shitty ones.”

He agreed wholeheartedly, for once. Now all that was left was setting the details up for the following day, and maybe get some rest. Elliot relaxed a bit further into his sister’s embrace. This was good.

 

This could be so, so bad. Alina splashed some more water on her face to remove what was left of her makeup and also clear her head a bit.

“What am I even doing?” she asked herself, as if her reflection could actually give her an answer. This was a dangerous game, poking around drug dealers and killers, and for what? The memory of a lost friend? No, it was more than that. Shayla was nice, and funny, and in a way pure… like she had ended up in the dirty parts of life and was trudging on ok, but wasn’t really supposed to be there in the first place. It simply wasn’t fair.

A «good girl gone bad», kind of like her. They had a lot in common, and try as she might, she couldn’t shake off the guilt of not having been there when she was kidnapped. Rationally, she knew that it wasn’t her fault, of course it was all on the psycho asshole that decided he wanted a piece of Shayla; but she wasn’t a robot, and it would be a long time before she would be able to let this one go. She sighed, throwing her towel back on its rack and going back into her bedroom to slip in a comfy t-shirt and into bed. This whole mission to take down whatever bullshit gang was responsible was to get more than just closure; it was an attempt at believing that things could actually be different, for people like her. That you could really turn bad to good, if you tried hard enough.

She paused, before hitting the covers, and grabbed her phone from the nightstand. “Hey, Liz? …Yes, it’s me, I’m sorry did I wake you?”

Her friend’s reply was predictable, but not encouraging. “Can’t sleep, huh? I’m sorry to hear that… hey, I was checking my rota, you’re supposed to be on table duty tonight, right?”

Pointless question, she already had the rota memorized after Elliot and Darlene told her she might have to approach some of the regulars, but still, for the sake of appearances. “I was thinking, why don’t we switch? You man the cash desk, and I take care of the customers. No reason, just thought you could use a break… nah, it’s a Wednesday night, there’ll be like, just the usual douchebags and a few drunkards, I’ll be fine…”

She felt kind of bad for manipulating her like this and making it look like a favour… but it was really for the best. “Okay, cool.” And maybe could help Lisa in the long run, too. “Say… my offer still stands, you know? Just whenever… you, me, a Lord of the Rings marathon to help us get through the night…” she only wished it was that easy. “No, I get it. Still… I’m there, you know? Okay, see ya later.”

It was hard to not come off as conceited or patronising to addicts when offering help, and heavens knew Alina made herself look like a bitch more than once, before learning not to speak as if she knew what it was like –because she really didn’t, that was the key – still… she couldn’t not try, and could deal with being called a bitch once or twice. And now wasn’t the time to dwell on it anyway; she should just get on with her plan: get some sleep, go burn off her adrenaline on the Muay Thai mats, and then get on with the hunt. It was going to be fine. She wasn’t alone this time.

…and that thought actually made her sleep a bit easier.

 

Fred was sitting at his usual table, and everything in the pub was the same… warm yellow light trying to make the subpar paintjob look nicer, cheap wooden furniture and cheesy western theme going strong as ever… it was a bit bleak, now that she looked at it with a critical eye, but she supposed it was still a better deal than most people got.

Steeling herself, she put a little extra sway in her hips and moved towards the man. “Hiya Fred. The usual?”

“Hey, yes pumpkin, that’d be great.” The answer was laced with a less than flattering tone from a voice made sandpapery by years and years of smoking and alcohol.

“Coming right up!” she said, bouncing right back from the unpleasant sensation of being called pet names by this guy without a hitch, “Hey can I ask you a favour?”

Fred regarded her suspiciously. He was a burly man, the vague Scandinavian heritage giving him a strong build together with the stereotypical light colours… the unkempt stubble and slightly scuffed clothing contributing to the whole northerner vibe. Alina tried to look as innocent and non-threatening as possible, even though she was sure she could somewhat take him, as far as technique was concerned, Fred had that look that said he’d been into more than one brawl and it wasn’t a particularly bright idea to mess with him.

“It depends.” He answered curtly, “What kind of favour?”

Time to see if she could become an actress. “You see, I have this friend and he, uh… has a little problem with morphine.”

“And I should care? Why? Didn’t I already tell you to keep your nose out that kinda stuff? If you ain’t buying, I don’t care.” He was obviously speaking in hushed tones since they were technically in a public establishments, but it was well past 1 a.m. and the few people who were there weren’t really caring.

“See that’s the point. Last time he had a nasty reaction, to… whatever it was that they cut the stuff they sold him with.” She fake-explained, trying her very best to not slip up and say something stupid, “I told him I knew a gal who knew a guy who could get him better stuff, you see… I figured… if he’s using he’s using, not my business, but at least he could buy proper stuff and not that crap that could kill him in one hit… you feel me?”

The man’s eyebrows rose at that proposal. It was unlikely of Alina’s type to delve in this kind of waters, but the people who frequented the pub knew her well enough to know she was a sucker for giving a bit of help whenever she could… and it wasn’t that uncommon that, not being able to do anything concrete for a person, she’d at least try to get them to choose the lesser of two evils.

Also, more clients meant more money, so why the hell not. “Well, I do have the best stuff.” He bragged, lips tilting into a self-satisfied smirk.

“Great! Just give me your number and I’ll pass it right up!” she spoke a bit too eagerly, but she was just so relieved that it was working… hopefully, Fred would simply be salivating at the prospect of another poor sap to spill money from and wouldn’t notice.

“Sure.” He said, accepting the marker and little paper torn from the order notebook, “So you’ll finally have my number, and one of these days you can call me and we can see about that sweet little ass of yours bouncing on some real man meat, huh?”

Alina internally rolled her eyes and suppressed the urge to punch him in the teeth. Clearing her voice, she took the paper back once he had written the number on it, “Um, not today. But if I ever wake up wanting to get me some Viking, you’ll be the first to know.”

It wasn’t that Fred was excessively bad to look at, he actually had rather good genes, the whole tall build and strong jaw packet, but they were wasted on a vaguely unclean person, not to mention rotten inside. So it would have to actually be the day she woke up wanting an STD and some really badly done rough treatment. No thanks.

That conversation left her grossed out enough to not want to touch anything for a week, but at least she played that idiot right the way she wanted. She still jumped at the slap that landed on her ass as soon as she turned her back to him, but managed to keep her cool.

“Hey, hands off the goods!” she shouted, faking amusement for the sake of not getting fired, ignoring whatever was catcalled after her by Fred or the couple other drunkards who thought Fred was a cool dude and she just an ass to look at.

Objectification at its finest… bunch of jackasses. The one thing that kept her from bashing their heads in, other than the whole employee thing, was the thought that they could look and leer all they wanted, but they weren’t ever going to get any piece of her. Jerks. Now she only had to wait until three.

 

Outside the pub, a hooded figure was just crossing the street to approach the place. Elliot knew he was a bit late, but there was actually a change of plans, because Darlene was supposed to come today but she dropped suddenly by his place telling him she was spending the evening at the arcade and then leaving without a word. Which led to him hastily throwing on a t-shirt, his black hoodie and the nearest pair of jeans and rushing out.

No hard feelings, he figured she was spending as much time with Trenton as she could before things got complicated, normal people tend to want to do that, to get as much of a good thing as possible before you dive headfirst in something that could get very bad. He sighed, reaching the sidewalk.

“Elliot? Is that you?”

 _Oh, come on._ What gave this guy the idea that he would still like to talk to him, after all of his cheating with Angela came out and they broke up… sure, when he didn’t know that Elliot knew he was at least somewhat obligated to tolerate him for Angela’s sake, but now…

“What do you want, Ollie?” he didn’t have time for this.

“Come on, man…” but Ollie obviously didn’t catch that from his fast walk, and fell into step with him, “Look… I know that you probably think I’m an ass now, what with… what happened with Angela and stuff, and that you never liked me anyway, but you really did me a solid with those two disks, and I wanted to thank you…” he rambled, completely unaware that Elliot wasn’t even listening to him, “And, you know… just because I made some mistakes it doesn’t mean that we can’t be civil, right?”

 _Like I said, he’s not that bad. He’s just dumb and annoying. Too dumb and too annoying._ “What you do with your life and what shit that brings you is your problem, not mine. You’re right, I don’t like you that much, but I’m not here to judge you.” _You’re literally nothing to me._ He burrowed deeper into his hoodie, mentally wishing him to go away as he picked up pace a little bit.

“Cool, good that’s good to hear man… hey are you going in there? Wanna grab a bite together?”

He threw a sideways look at Ollie. _Why is he still trying to talk to me? Did he get tired of the girl he was cheating with and now he’s trying to play nice with me to try and worm his way back into Angela’s life? Idiots like him tend to think that would work. But they usually approach female friends, so what the fuck._ “Look, I really have to go, I’m actually—”

“It’s a nice place, right? I mean have you seen the waitresses? Nothing better than some eye-candy to go with a meal, am I right?” apparently, Ollie’s brain ceased to function whenever something resembling breasts and the like was involved, and didn’t get Elliot’s cue of get lost. “This is my kind of place, dude.”

Elliot figured it would be better to spell it out, so he turned to fully face him. “Yeah, yeah that’s great and all, but I don’t have time—”

He couldn’t even fit the usual “gotta go bye” he used to get rid of Ollie before he was interrupted again. “Dude. Dude! Babe alert, 6 o’ clock!”

 _What?_ He turned around, mostly on instinct, and there she was. Alina was coming towards him, in all her uniform’s glory –which he assumed was what Ollie was so excited about – skimpy shorts, cowboy hat and all. “Hiya cowboy. Good to see you could make it.” She started, nodding to him and in the direction of the exit, “You planning on standing here like a jackass some more or are you going to walk me home?” she insisted, adding a wink for show, and that was when Elliot caught up with her.

Not the safest move ever, to speak to him like they saw each other a lot in front of other people, but she already fake-flirted with him once, he could only hope she thought about doing the same with enough other clients for it to not be suspicious.

And Ollie wasn’t the most dangerous eye-witness to worry about, since he literally didn’t have any connection of any kind with the entire matter. Coming to think of it, it was possible that she saw him being tailed by the other while clearly not wanting him there, and had come to his rescue.

“Um. Yeah, let’s go.” He answered, a tiny insecure smile forming on his face. Crap, he was always so awkward when it came to talking to people in front of other people. It was a complicated thing to explain.

“Great, I’ll go get my things, be right back.” Was all the redhead offered, before bouncing away and through the backdoor to probably get changed.

The look on Ollie’s face told Elliot that he fell for it hook, line and sinker, but also that it would be a few more agonizing minutes before he was finally free of his presence.

“Ooh, so _that’s_ why you were in such a hurry to get here… man!” he commented with a sly grin, engaging in some kind of bro-mode because apparently the possibility of Elliot having sex with the redhead put them on the same page or something, “I mean, she’s a bit flat for my tastes, but dude, them legs…”

 _Please stop talking._ Was there some sort of planetary alignment that was compelling people to tell him to go have sex with Alina? Didn’t she even get a say in the matter?

“Seriously man, I’m happy for you… I should also probably get outta your hair, huh…” _Yes please, finally, one smart thing to come out of your mouth._ “This place looks like it’s closing for the night anyway… go get her, ya hound.”

 _Oh god, I physically felt that in my soul._ Either that, or he again visibly flinched away from the bro-pat on the shoulder that the other insisted on trying, despite getting the same reaction over and over. Luckily, the guy’s code of sorts, distorted as it may be, made him leave, for the sake of not cock-blocking him, so when Alina returned from the changing rooms she found him blissfully alone.

“Man, that guy looked like a douche.” Was the first thing out of her mouth as soon as they were within speaking distance. For some reason it made Elliot smile.

“You have no idea.” He told her, moving to get back out as she did the same. Looking at her out of the uniform again, he didn’t really get the appeal of having half-naked waitresses that clearly would prefer to be somewhere else. But then again, he didn’t really have a ‘type’ –you don’t get to think about things like that when you spend most of your days alternating between daily obsessions, occasional crying bouts and insomnia.

“Yeah, I’ll take your word for it.” She conceded, patting her beanie further on her head, “Let’s walk together for a bit, shall we?” the nights were still rather cold and tonight the streets were damp with icy leftover rain, but Alina didn’t look all that bothered and seemed to be doing just fine in her long cardigan and thick dark leggings. Seeing her for the third time with a baggy shirt-dress of sorts on top and form-fitting pants on the bottom kind of cemented the idea that, despite appearing to be fine with her body just the way it was, she clearly still unconsciously tried to make up for the lack of curves by masking what wasn’t there and highlighting what was. No one is ever completely without body image issues, not in a society where more often than not appearances can make or break you, despite all hypocritical preaching on inner beauty and all that.

He wondered if the way he dressed revealed a lot about him, too.

“Hello?” he brought his gaze back up to Alina. _Shit, has she been talking to me this entire time?_

“Yes? Did you say something?”

She shook her head, curls bouncing here and there with the movement. “No, but you looked lost in thought, I figured I’d call you back before actually trying to tell you anything.”

 _Smart girl._ “Okay, yeah, what is it?” he asked, looking at her carefully as she got closer to him.

They were still walking side by side and no one was paying attention to them in the streets that late at night, so it was probably safe to speak freely. Alina took something from her left pocket and slid her hand into the right pocket of Elliot’s hoodie. Which made him immediately take out his own hand, partly in reflex and partly because he caught onto the fact that she was slipping a piece of paper in there, most likely with the number he asked for.

“The guy’s full name is Frederick Kivi and he’s… 42 I think.” Unsure what to do with his now free hand, Elliot draped it loosely around Alina’s shoulders as she spoke to him. It was better than have an arm hanging around in mid-air. “He was born here, but he always goes on about Scandinavia and how he’s better than everyone else because he’s supposedly northern, I don’t know if that can help you or not.”

Something warm settled within Elliot’s ribcage when he realized that she went to the trouble to remember stuff to try and be more helpful. It was almost –almost – cute. “Don’t worry, name and number are enough, I’ll figure out the rest.”

“Great!” she nodded, taking back her hand and giving him more room again. He didn’t mind her closeness that much, mostly because it was very discreetly brought about and never lasted longer than it had to, but was still grateful that Alina was actually respecting his boundaries –he knew for a fact that she was quite tactile with the people she knew and cared about, if the photos hugging or carrying friend and acquaintances were anything to go by.

In the meantime, they had reached the subway, and his strange redhead friend slowly came to a halt. “So…” she left her sentence hanging, dragging out the ‘o’ for a bit.

 _This is going to be a long night. I should be getting on my train and she should be going home. I don’t like this, she’s probably expecting me to say something… I’m sorry, I don’t have any words of comfort for you just yet. You agreed to do this, and you sort of knew what you were getting yourself into. You can’t start being afraid of your own shadow now… especially considering you could kick the shit out of it._ “I have to go get to work… if you want me to, I can come along for a bit, and…”

“I was actually worried about you.” She intercepted, letting out a chuckle. “I mean, Fred was long gone when you came by and I don’t think anyone knows our super-secret mission yet, but still. You sure you don’t want _me_ to protect you along the way?”

It actually made sense, but the little mischievous grin she was giving him told him she wasn’t actually serious. Was this her way of actually flirting with him? Or –more likely in his humble opinion – was she screwing with him like Darlene liked to do so much?

Either way, he couldn’t hold back a chuckle that turned into a small smirk. “I, uh… I think I’m good for the night. Thanks though.”

_Maybe next time._

Alina bounced a couple times on the balls of her feet, and then shrugged. “Your loss. I’ll try and drop by your place tomorrow to see how everything’s getting along, that okay with you?”

“You got keys.” Was all he answered, shrugging back.

“Okay, well.” She clicked her heels and mock-saluted him, “See you tomorrow, cowboy.”

And just like that, she was gone again.

Elliot was still smiling to himself on the train ride home, and still thinking of long red curls and knee high boots when he got home.

He wasn’t sure he was quite ready to admit it yet, but maybe Darlene was right.

But first, work. He had a drug dealer to dissect.

 

_~tbc_


	4. p4th.find3r

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things finally get into motion... more brusquely than expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, I did it! I really have to rush to work right now, so you won't find any clever commentary in here, but I just really wanted to keep going and already had a little list of things happening prepared.  
> I hope everything is still good!
> 
> Enjoy :)
> 
> (still grossly unbeta'ed, like always. gotta go bye!)

_Frederick Kivi. Born and raised here, from parents born and raised here. His father’s father was Finnish, and that’s how much northern he is. His wife died in a car accident after she got out of the house in a hurry, to distance herself from yet another argument on the verge of turning into domestic abuse. If Fred blames himself or not for her death, he never said. His son, all of 8 years old, is mostly neglected and unsupervised, back and forth between school and a rundown home where no one is really there to wait for him._

The man had started selling joints to teenagers well before he met his wife, and it was actually the source of many of their fights –she probably was tired of living on the outskirts of legality and wanted to protect her son from the environment her husband was knee deep in. He didn’t really see a problem with drug dealing as long as he didn’t bring work home and thought she should just lay off. Beat on her a couple times but “at least” he never touched the kid.

_Safe to say that no one would mind if this asshole disappeared._

Elliot surfed through calls, emails, private accounts of all sorts, and his resolution to break down the entire damn team grew with every minute. This guy was a bit more careful than Vera, not tweeting about every damn deal he made, but he had to make some text, calls and send messages to keep in contact with clients and suppliers, and he found enough of them to go by.

_Shit…_

There was only one problem: apparently, he made most of his deals and meetings with his supplier out of a nightclub. He hated clubs. Too many people. He went back with his mind to the day he took down that Rohit guy with the child porn network… that went smoothly enough, but it was in a small café at a quiet time. There was no way he could set foot into a nightclub without freaking out.

He’d need Darlene’s help.

 

“So… Club Pulse, huh?” it was roughly two in the afternoon when his sister dropped by his place, and curled up in his chair with Flipper on her lap, “And we’re looking for a… ‘chief’?”

He nodded, stretching out on his bed. “I know. Asshole nickname. Apparently there’s a vip area that Fred has access to every time he goes in there… and also this guy probably doesn’t work alone, because judging from the texts and traffic Fred is only one of three dealers he sells stuff to.” it was good to lie down a bit after sitting hunched in his chair all night, even though despite having hacked everything possible about Fred he was only able to come up with a place and a nickname… wasn’t much, but it still was a start. “So it’s probably there that his supposed supplier hangs out, but the only way to tell…”

“Is going there and checking.” Darlene exhaled around her cigarette, before letting the small dog down and standing up. “Okay, I’ll go there and bring Alina along for back up.”

Elliot didn’t like the idea of his sister going in a place with a lot of potentially armed criminals on her own, but he guessed going there together with a black belt was better than alone.

 _Still… I should keep an eye on them._ “I’ll come along. Pick a place outside, hack into the club system for… safety.”

Those words got Darlene smiling wide. “Relax… we’ll be okay, we got this.”

“Humor me.” He fixed his gaze on her, as stern as he could manage while still lying down with his forearm on his head.

She shrugged, but nodded, moving to sit next to him on the edge of the bed. “Suit yourself.” She agreed, extending a hand towards his face. “Rock paper scissors to decide who goes to tell Alina?”

 

Club Pulse was like any other club from the outside, loud and full of flashing lights, with the crowd outside and everything. Luckily for them, bouncers weren’t too hard on “hot chicks” and Darlene and Alina made it inside relatively easily. On the other side of the road, sitting on a bench, Elliot sat with his laptop and hacked into the establishment’s network to take control of the cctv, security system, anything that they might need in an emergency situation, all the while trying to look as small and inconspicuous as possible.

“Okay, let’s start playing our part and then go look for our man!” Darlene said, right into Alina’s ear –it was hard not to shout inside a crowded nightclub, but they still had to keep it somewhat quiet so that was a challenge.

It was a good thing that their plan was to pretend to be a lesbian couple looking for a hit to spice up things in the bedroom afterhours, so they could keep close and mouth things in each other’s ears without anyone finding it strange. They lingered on the dance floor for a little while, getting into the part and letting people see them with hands all over each other –in this kind of situation, the person in control of the drug traffic usually has a close eye on the dance floor and scopes out potential clients, so it was important that they didn’t go up and ask to see that chief guy right away.

After an acceptable amount of time passed, they got to the bar to order some drinks.

“And what can I get you lovely ladies?” the bartender leered at them, because despite them being clearly together, some men don’t get that lesbians aren’t actually sluts that sleep with anything and so there’d be no point in trying to get in on the action, and he was one of those guys.

Darlene ignored the man’s attitude and spoke for the both of them. “Just give us something dark and strong.” She answered, not really caring about what came on the counter since they weren’t really there to drink, “Right, babe?” but she guessed it was as good a distraction as any, and she grabbed Alina by the back of her head and kissed her like she meant it.

After all, they were supposed to be there to party hard.

 _This is so not what I signed up to watch._ Outside, Elliot felt an unpleasant mix of weirded out, aroused and generally wanting the whole ordeal to be over.

Either way, it worked all too well, as the bartender also was way more interested in the two of them making out rather than whether they downed the drinks or not, and it was time to take advantage of said interest to move forward.

“Say… is there anyone here that could give us a little something?” Darlene did most of the talking, because Alina clearly would have no idea what to say, but the hacker had to give her credit for doing a good job of playing the silent horny girlfriend type, giving her little bites on the shoulder while she spoke, “You know, to kick things up a notch when it’s time to get down and dirty?” She leaned forward on the counter, both to get the guy to hear her and to let him drool a bit at her cleavage –which usually makes people do whatever she wants.

“Well…” he seemed hesitant, probably because they had never been seen here before. But that was an obstacle she could get around.

“Pretty please? If you tell me, we’ll let you watch later…” sometimes it was almost too easy.

Predictably, the guy cracked at the prospect of a free show, and took a little card out of a drawer behind the counter. “Take this to the bouncer at the vip entrance, and tell him I told you to speak with the chief.”

“You got it!” Darlene snatched out the card before the bartender could change his mind, “See ya later, big boy!” she tossed with a wink, taking Alina’s hand and heading over to the vip area.

On the way there, Alina had to hide her face in Darlene’s neck to laugh, but it went well unnoticed. “Oh god this is almost fun.”

“I know, _babe_ , but now the real fun begins, ok? Focus.” She said, smiling at her but steeling herself for the moment things went to shit.

They were let in without too much of a fuss, the card was legit and, again, hot chicks besides paying clients, but the guy in there was clearly a bit more careful than Vera was.

Sitting on an armchair, he looked casual but had two dudes standing behind him –trying very hard to look like they were just chilling there and not guarding their boss, and failing. Also he probably wasn’t that well-endowed and that was either a gun or a knife.

“Hey! Hi, I’m Paulie, and you’re…” Darlene extended her hand and tried to get the guy to tell her his name by trying to make small talk.

“You can call me chief.” It didn’t work too well. “So what can I do ya for?”

“Well you see, my girlfriend’s in town tonight and I wanna show her a good time…” she explained, circling Alina’s waist with one arm while the redhead winked at him, “You got something that can help us?”

The chief drank in the sight as well, but was way more controlled than the bartender. “Yeah, sure thing. Got some E, fifty bucks apiece. Pure stuff, honest to god. You interested?”

Darlene pretended to be pondering the price. “Fifty? Can’t I get a little discount, since I’m so cute?” she attempted, batting her eyelashes for show.

“Sorry honey, fixed price or no deal.” They needed to get to his phone, and they needed to do it fast. They were spending too much time in there, and if the look on the guy’s face was anything to go by, he was already starting to get suspicious.

“Okay…” she conceded, taking her sweet time with getting the cash out of her pockets, “Say, real tight outfit you’re running here, these all your guys?”

“Flattery won’t get you that discount, pay up or shut up.”

Crap what else could she say to get him to whip out his phone? “Okay, okay, give me a sec!” she protested, “I was just saying… you know, how can I find you if I want to buy more? You got a number or something?”

“Honey, you’re asking too many questions.” He was clearly getting impatient and the guys behind him were closing in on them, “If you want more, you come back here and that’s it. Now shut the fuck up.”

“Dude, okay! Not my fault you’re too much of a pussy to talk to gir—”

Apparently, chief didn’t take too kindly about being called a pussy, and backhanded Darlene in the mouth.

 _Fuck._ Elliot gripped his laptop until his knuckles went white, and hoped they could still get out of there okay.

Inside, all hell broke loose. Alina intercepted the guy’s punch after Darlene was knocked back, twisted his arm and turned in his space, elbowing him right in the ribs and sending his ass tumbling down, but the other two guys pounced on her.

There wasn’t too much space, but luckily her fighting style was for very close quarters, and despite getting one punch to the face from her first assailant –damn, did the guy have to be wearing rings? Fuck – she still managed to knee him in the stomach and then slam an elbow right in the crook of his neck, which basically made him pass out. Darlene attempted to hold back the other guy, grabbing him by the arm and kicking him in the shin, but he still shook her off and tried to get the drop on Alina while she was still busy taking down his pal.

Luckily, Darlene’s disturbance was enough to prepare her, and she just whipped around and dropped a roundhouse kick right on the guy’s temple. Less luckily, the chief seemed to have recovered and grabbed a bottle, which he threw at them. Alina, having faster reflexes, got in front of Darlene and blocked with her arm, very grateful for thick whisky bottles that didn’t smash on impact with skin, but it still bounced painfully on her shoulder and had her cursing out loud.

“Oh fuck!” she turned towards the chief, that had now pulled out his knife, “We gotta get out of here!” she yelled at Darlene, while still keeping her eyes on the man.

“Oh you ain’t getting anywhere you little skank!” he was ready to pounce on her and try to stab her, with all the malice he was capable of, but he didn’t go very far.

While he was so focused on beating up the chick that could actually fight, the other chick was the one to be his downfall: Darlene had used the distraction to grab one of the wooden stools, and she smashed it on the side of his head and shoulders as hard as she could.

Not hard enough to kill him, but he still fell like a sack of shit and they were relatively safe to go.

“Quick, take his phone and get what you need before the bouncers come in to see what’s going on!” Alina immediately got on the lookout, while Darlene didn’t spend too much time waiting… being in a club meant that there was plenty of noise that covered up the scuffle, but still someone close enough would have heard that something was wrong and they needed to get the hell out.

“No way no one’s gonna notice us coming out of here bloody and in a hurry…” Darlene was already looking out for windows or secondary doors to sneak into but that was when her brother came to the rescue.

Virtually, of course, but when the fire alarms started ringing and sprinklers started raining water everywhere, she knew it was Elliot. “And that’s our cue to skadoodle, come, petal, let’go let’s go!!!”

It was quite the commotion, but it worked perfectly to get them out of there. They got some distance between themselves and the club, before stopping near a train station to catch their breath.

“Woooh!” Darlene yelled, obviously hyped by excess adrenaline, “That was awesome! You showed them Wonder Woman!” she clapped Alina on the back with one hand, rubbing her split lip with the other.

“Thanks, but you saved my butt, too.” Was all she replied, wringing water out of her curls as if they were a rag, “Here’s to teamwork!”

Elliot looked between the two of them –drenched and with a nightclub brawl on their shoulders – and was feeling kind of guilty. “Darlene, your mouth…”

“I’m fine, you doofus, it’s nothing!” she assured stubbornly, shaking water out of her hair a bit like a puppy would and shrugging her shoulders, “I’m tougher than I look… ‘sides, I already have a sexy nurse to go back to, and it’s not you.” She bumped shoulders with her brother and winked at him, moving to take her leave. “Why don’t you take a look at Wonder Woman instead? She could use it more than me.”

Coming to think of it… Alina had a busted cheek from where she took the fistful of metal, was bleeding a bit from her forehead and was trying to hide something painful in her shoulders –both things probably a consequence of the whisky bottle that bounced on her. Elliot wasn’t exactly keen on letting Darlene go out alone after a fight like that, but she seemed genuinely okay and probably itching to go see her “nurse”.

He let himself smile. “Okay.”

“Great! See you guys tomorrow!” she finally said, “And don’t have too much fun without me!”

 

“What did you do this time?” Trenton had learnt to not be surprised by the way Darlene turned up at the arcade, since there was probably nothing she ever did the normal way –but then again, that applied to her too, and wasn’t it the reason she felt so close to Darlene in the first place? “You’re soaked.” Still, she couldn’t help but fuss, while she cleaned the cut on her lower lip as gently as she could, after having helped her dry up.

“Just, you know, the usual… epic Muay Thai fights, secret gangs… that kind of stuff.” The best way to not make people ask was always telling the truth right away, in such an unbelievable manner that it passed as a lie.

“Come on…” The smile on Trenton’s face told her that it worked, she didn’t buy it. Also, that one smile was well worth the impromptu shower and busted lip. “Fine, don’t tell me. But stay still, I’m almost done.”

Darlene let herself be pampered by her actual girlfriend –it was still weird to call her that, even inside her own head – and tried not to think too hard about all the things she wasn’t telling her. “Don’t worry, I’m okay, it was just an accident…” she offered, not elaborating further, “It’s just turning out to be a rough week. Cuddle until morning?”

Trenton’s smile softened further. “What am I going to do with you?”

“You could kiss it better, for starters.”

Trenton shook her head at her, but complied all the same. It was only after it got intense that Darlene pulled back with a pained sound, because of her split lip. “Ow, fuck…”

They looked at each other for a second, before dissolving into laughter and settling in a more comfortable position to actually cuddle until morning.

 

Back at Elliot’s place, he was torn between apologising to Alina for getting her hurt, thanking her for looking out for Darlene and asking her what the hell happened. Unfortunately, the camera feed from the security cctv didn’t have any audio, so it was a big surprise for him when everything went south.

 _I mean, the guy’s body language suggested that he was losing patience, but still. It’s not even really her fault, we weren’t as well prepared as I wanted us to be…_ “Get comfortable. I’ll get you some towels and some ice.”

He guessed that was as good as a start as any, and it was at least on neutral grounds. She nodded, trying to hide the splitting headache that comes from narrowly dodging a bottle of Jack to the face, and rid herself of her soaked jacket. The rest of her clothes wasn’t much better off, but at least she didn’t have to endure the unpleasant sticking of her wet jacket on her back.

“I’m sorry about what happened…” She offered meekly, more tired than uneasy for once, “At least Darlene got what we needed.”

And he wouldn’t get his hands on it until the next day at best… _So what do I do now?_

Well his sister suggested he took care of Alina, and it probably was the decent thing to do, considering she got punched in the face with rings. The skin on her cheekbone was scuffed and broken, and underneath the little bloody patch an angry purple bruise was already forming.

He sighed, feeling partially responsible for not being able to get more accurate info. “Here.” He offered her the biggest, fluffiest towel he could find in his bathroom –not that it was saying much, but he tried – and moved to the sink, to wet a rag and find some band aids in that one cupboard above the fridge. “I’ll get you something dry to wear too, if you want.”

“That’s really not… I mean I don’t want to be a bother.” It was a weak complaint without any real will behind it, but she was too tired and her head hurt too much to care. She just wanted to get dry and warm.

“Don’t worry.” Elliot kept his back to her while he listened to the shuffle of the towel over hair and clothes. It was a strange sound, now that he thought about it. Or maybe it was the situation that made it strange. He turned towards her, unable to hide a little smile about how the water had smudged her make up again, but approaching her to do what he set out to nonetheless. “Let me see that.”

Alina closed her eyes while Elliot lifted her chin with one hand, dabbing the wet rag on the bruise as gently as he could. She couldn’t hold back a little grimace of pain, and he stopped. “What? Is it broken?” _That would be a bitch._ He swiped his thumb around the bruise, to try and find a fracture, but Alina got a hold on his wrist and looked up at him.

“It’s not. Trust me, I know how a broken cheekbone feels like.” She assured, leaving him to wonder in which of her numerous accidents did she break her face, “It just hurts a little, that’s all.”

He hesitated for a second, but resumed with cleaning the scratches and applying the cold soothing rag to her cheek. “Okay.”

A slightly uncomfortable silence stretched between them during the minutes it took to complete the cleaning and apply the square white plaster. He gently rubbed his thumb on the corner of the plaster, straightening out an imaginary crease and letting the movement drop into a caress of sorts.

“Um.” He cleared his throat, not really knowing what either of them was doing, and moved to dab a little at the cut on her forehead, too. “Thanks… for looking out for Darlene, by the way.”

The forehead hurt significantly less, and Alina relaxed under Elliot’s ministrations. “Mm, yeah well… I wish I did that a bit better.” After all Darlene still got clocked in the process, and held up her own quite well, anyway.

 _Not your fault. Stop holding yourself to bullshit superhero standards. What do you feel the need to compensate for?_ That was a question that hacking her didn’t give him an answer to. “She’ll be alright… she’s tough like that.” He offered, satisfied with the fact that the little cut on Alina’s forehead seemed very minor and not even in need of covering up. “Now… shoulder.”

“There’s nothing wrong with my shoulder…” she denied, instinctively cradling herself a bit, “Can I just get a dry coat and go home?”

He got where she was coming from, really he did… she was tired, the fight had been unexpected and probably quite a scare even though they made a lucky break in the end, and just wanted the night to be over… just like him. But still, she needed some ice for that shoulder, and could probably could use some painkillers.

“I was actually thinking more along the lines of getting you an ice pack and some painkillers.” He told her, getting said ice out of the fridge. “Can I?” moving closer to her, he realized that he’d have to help her slip off her shirt to apply the ice on the bruise; and that made things a bit awkward, but it didn’t matter right now. It shouldn’t have, for sure.

Alina seemed to relent a bit. “Sure.” She agreed, shrugging her hurt side out of the sleeve with a bit of help from him and taking off the other side normally, which left her with a thin, spaghetti-strapped black undershirt and a nasty bruise forming on the point where the bicep met the shoulder. “I guess I could use some ice, but no painkillers, or I’ll fall asleep on the way.”

“You should just crash here, then.” The words tumbled out of Elliot’s lips before his mind could even register them.

She actually smiled at that, though he couldn’t be sure if it was from the offer or the sensation of the ice pack now pressed against her shoulder. “Are you sure it’s not a bother?” she asked again, closing her eyes.

Something going deeper than just being the target of different bouts of violence had to be inside her mind, for her to think she didn’t deserve to be taken care of. At this point, Elliot was pretty sure. “I am. I suggested it, didn’t I?”

She sighed, eyes still closed. Clearly too tired to argue further. “Okay.”

“Good girl.” He joked, setting aside the ice and opening his dresser to get out something that would be comfortable for Alina to wear for the night.

He found a blue sweater long enough to go well past her butt, and figured it would have to do. He turned towards her, a “Here you go” forming on the tip of his tongue, but dying as soon as he looked at her again.

Apparently, she didn’t have that much of a problem with undressing in front of others, looking down as she shrugged out of her shiny black leggings and let them join her shirt on the back of Elliot’s chair. He kind of froze like that, adverting his gaze while still standing there. It wasn’t like he had never seen a girl undress before, it was just that… this was strangely domestic.

And it made him feel weird.

Mercifully, it was over soon, as Alina just took the sweater with a “Thanks” and pulled it on, trying not to move her left arm too much. He didn’t blame her for being oblivious at his moment of discomfort, he figured she was kind of justified, after having been knocked around and still managing to kick everyone’s ass.

There, that was a good thing to distract himself with. “By the way… that was… cool.” He commented, going to the sink again to get her a glass of water for the painkillers.

He had heard about Muay Thai being one of the most brutal martial arts forms, but seeing it in action and actually take down attackers was pretty fucking impressive.

“Thanks.” She said again, accepting the pill and downing the water with a sigh afterwards. “I’m just gonna be thanking you a lot tonight, huh?”

It was his turn to shrug. “I’m just… um.” _Damnit, words._ They never came out the way he wanted to in these situations. “You should get some sleep.”

“Right… but I’m not kicking you out of your own bed.” Was the obvious protest.

“No, it’s alright.” He assured her, really not willing to let this courtesy shit go on despite her being adamant to be a good guest… which was bullshit, considering the situation wasn’t exactly ‘typical’. “I don’t sleep much anyway, I’ll just take the couch.”

She seemed unsure still, hugging her own arms while Elliot definitely wasn’t staring at how the sleeves of his sweater were long enough to cover her fingers almost all the way and the entire thing was big enough for her to disappear in. He wasn’t.

“You sure?” the big, round eyes contoured by slightly smudged makeup were too much.

“Just get on the damn bed and get some rest.”

Something in his tone, part exasperated and part non-committal, made Alina chuckle; and she mock-saluted him again. “Aye, captain.” But she took a step closer to him, grasping lightly at his sleeve. “At the risk of sounding repetitive… thanks.” And it was delivered with a kiss on the cheek that Elliot didn’t even think about flinching out of, much less register at all. “Good night.”

He only even knew it actually happened because he felt the sensation lingering still afterwards, because of Alina’s lips being really cold after being soaked with emergency sprinklers. She made a point out of making herself as small as she could, on his bed, curling up and turning her back to him, but he still found himself watching her for a little while.

 _Stop it. It’s creepy. What am I, sixteen? Get a grip on yourself._ It was probably time to get some rest himself, he’d have a very full day coming tomorrow, what with hacking an entire drug dealing network from one man’s phone and all. That broke him out of his musings, and he ran both hands behind his neck, lifting his head and sighing.

He went to drop some fish food in Qwerty’s bowl and pet Flipper’s head a bit, before finally getting ready to call it a night. Slipping off shoes, hoodie and trousers, he just grabbed a spare blanket and got down on his couch.

 _Okay, I’m pretty fucking tired._ He was actually starting to feel drained from the night’s events himself. At least that would hopefully make him conk out and get some rest… but he’d be a liar if he said he didn’t rise his head one last time to sneak a glance at the figure drifting off to sleep on his bed. “…Good night.” He whispered, not sure if it was heard at all, but not really wanting to think about it yet. Just like he didn’t really want to elaborate on his fascination for the stark difference between Alina and himself, that still highlighted some peculiar parallels making them more similar that one would guess.

_Stop it. There are so many other things to think about right now. Priorities, Elliot. Let’s just get to tomorrow and see where it goes from there._

_~tbc_


	5. ripp1e.3ffect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> People start talking, like pebbles thrown into rivers, and words and looks pile up into seconds and minutes.  
> Elliot finds himself in this strange kind of limbo that has him uncertain and yet determined... and, sometimes, catches him off-guard in his underwear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap this is over 5000 words long. It's just that the one scene came to me this morning, while I was still half-asleep and pondering whether breakfast was worth getting out of bed, and then I spent like 20 solid minutes laughing like an idiot.  
> I'm not even sure it will be that funny to others.  
> I just... my problem is that I write like, on instinct, without really thinking and only stopping a narration when it "feels" right. Sometimes I will make a little memo of keywords about what's supposed to happen but that's to make sure I move the plot ahead, otherwise I'd just keep writing, lol.  
> I'm really sorry if it feels like not much is happening (again) but next chapter is on its way already and will be in on Sunday at most, and it kinda ties in with this one from Alina's side of the coin.
> 
> p.s.: holy crap, multiple OCs. I hope I can keep track of them all.  
> p.p.s.: as always, I can't beta read my own work for shit. Will correct mistakes as I go on.

Morning light saw Elliot still lethargic and not really all that rested: sure, his couch was comfortable enough, but an entire night’s sleep on it still wasn’t the best of ideas. He sat up and stretched his arms, figuring it was worthy if his new partner in crime had at least gotten the rest she deserved, and the thought immediately following was that damn, his therapist would be so proud of him if she knew he actually was looking out for a friend.

 _Friend? We’ve barely known each other for three days._ And yet a lot can happen in three days, not to mention the bonding over a common cause. Yeah, if they asked him to think of a friendly face at the moment, barring his own sister, it would be Alina’s. He smiled to himself, rubbing sleep out of his face and glancing over to his bed.

Made, with the blue sweater folded in a corner. And Alina’s clothes weren’t on his desk chair anymore. _Figures she wouldn’t leave without tidying up after herself. Must be a martial artist thing._

Elliot wasn’t an expert on the subject, but he had heard and read that doing things that require lots of discipline for enough years kind of seeps into everyday actions. And it was much less awkward to think that it had been an autopilot sort of thing rather than her actually doing nice stuff for him –a part of his mind didn’t want her to be nice to him, not when he was getting her into all sorts of trouble… and the more rational part of him called him a hypocrite, since just hours prior he was questioning her motives for not wanting to be cared about. Nope, it was still too early for this kind of shit.

He got up and yanked off his t-shirt. A warm shower would help him get some feeling back in his aching limbs and reset his brain a bit… _Also coffee. I’m gonna need a shitload of coffee_. He was padding to the bathroom to get the rest of his clothes off, when something moving caught the corner of his eye and panic woke him up like a kick in the nuts.

“No, don’t stop on my account… I was enjoying the show.” There was Alina, leaning on the kitchen corner in yesterday evening’s clothes –except for sweater and jacket – with the icepack back on her shoulder. She was clearly biting back a smirk at him, standing there in his underwear panicking about whatever intruder his mind had conjured.

_Oh. So she didn’t leave right away. Christ, that one got me._

He exhaled, happy that at least it wasn’t some other drug dealer breaking in to kill him, and turned his still sleepy gaze towards her. “What are you doing still here?” _That came out wrong._

Alina seemed embarrassed by the question, but whether she thought he was being rude to her or not he couldn’t tell. Either way, she shrugged her good shoulder. “Sorry about that, I must have rolled on myself while I was asleep, because when I woke up my shoulder hurt like a bitch…” she explained, looking down at her own shoulder and making him look by reflex.

The bruise itself wasn’t too bad, even though the skin around it was slightly reddened by the biting cold of the ice pack, and a wet patch was quickly forming on the corner of the shirt where the strap met the rest of the cloth. Elliot blinked a couple times before focusing back on Alina’s face. She had some red around her eyes too, but that was probably from having to use normal soap as a makeup remover. What an odd detail to notice, of all things. Was he being obsessive again?

“You were still asleep when I was done getting dressed, so I figured I’d just let you and treat it a bit more before heading out.” He caught the continuation of her words and nodded, if only to let her know he was still listening, “I’m sorry about scaring you, I thought you’d see me standing here.”

 _Still, you could have said something, like good morning, especially when you noticed that I didn’t._ This was the part of Alina that made the least sense to him. He couldn’t decide whether she was screwing with him the same way Darlene loved to, or if it was just the way she was, but it still made her unpredictable and him uncomfortable.

He just shook his head, lost in the paradox of feeling rather neutral in what would normally be an uneasy situation. “No, I had my back to you.” There was something profoundly bizarre about simply carrying on talking in the middle of his apartment while in his underwear, but he guessed that it wasn’t that big of a deal after all, and then a familiar smell caught up to him:

“Yeah, well… sorry again. Coffee?” okay, he could forgive her for amusing herself with waiting to see whether he would notice her presence or not, since she presented him coffee as a peace offering.

He crossed the space to the counter in less than three steps and grabbed himself a mug, feeling tension ease from his shoulders at the first sip, everything else forgotten. “Fuck yes, I needed that.”

Alina chuckled at him, before setting down the ice and lowering her gaze. “I should go.” She said, after a couple seconds of uncertain silence.

 _You should already have been gone._ But he actually didn’t mind having found her still there. Especially since, being a waitress, she made some pretty good coffee. “How’s the bump?”

Another shrug was her primary response. “I’ll live.”

“You probably shouldn’t go to work tonight.” He suggested, having thrown the thought around his head for a couple seconds, “That Fred probably knows what happened at the club last night, and if he sees you bruised and bloody he’s gonna put two and two together.”

Same reason why they couldn’t start tipping him to the police right away… if they touched one piece before uncovering the entire puzzle, all the others would be on high alert and either come after them or make their job insanely more difficult. It would still be suspicious for her to not show up, but it wasn’t like the man knew her schedule, and absence at least wouldn’t be confirmation.

Elliot could see Alina following the same train of thought, probably pondering whether not going was more or less suspicious, but seemed to settle for agreement. “Yeah, by tomorrow I’ll probably be able to cover everything up. Might as well call in for the day.”

He hummed in approval at her answer, lips back on his mug to drink more coffee, and breathed deeply through his nose, letting the aroma wafting up to him relax his senses a little bit. A few more seconds ticked away before the hacker realized he should probably get out of the way to allow Alina to get out of his apartment. “Right, so…”

She too snapped out of whatever morning or post-fight daze she had slipped into. “Well, you guys know where I live, so hit me up as soon as you have something…” she interrupted him, slipping her baggy and slightly fuzzy white overshirt back on and grabbing her jacket.

“Sure.” He instinctively followed up to the door, opening it for her. “See you later—”

“Elliot?”

 _Oh come on, this is bullshit. There must be some karmic lesson I’m missing, otherwise this wouldn’t keep happening over and over._ Getting surprised by his childhood crush in his apartment with a woman, with various states of undress involved in the mix… it either was some kind of cosmic joke or there was a conclusion to draw that he clearly didn’t see well enough.

Angela was caught off-guard by a redhead leaving Elliot’s apartment, especially since he appeared to be showing her out half-naked, and while Alina barely registered her presence, side-stepped her and took her leave with a polite “Excuse me”, having no idea who she was; he now was tasked with the explanations.

Not that he owed her one, but when you spend most of your life wishing to be normal for the sake of a person you could never really be near to the way they deserved; you end up feeling obligated to justify your actions to them one way or the other. Which was especially true with Angela, with that look she always gave him when weird shit went down: a mixture of confused and slightly miffed that he didn’t tell her, or that she wasn’t as big of a part of his life as she was when they were kids.

Truth to be told, he had kind of stopped talking to Angela, since she entered the PR department at Evil Corp. It was a hard blow and he nearly couldn’t believe it, but she was actually working for them now –didn’t seem to like it, but the fact remained that he wouldn’t be able to speak with her as freely as he used to, if only for the sake of caution. It broke his heart a little bit –okay, a fucking lot, but that was beside the point – but that was how it had to be, especially after the big attack they landed.

_That’s probably part of the reason she’s here in the first place. The balance of society went upside down and I’ve pulled a ghost act on her… it was only a matter of time before she came to see what the hell happened to me… man, what shitty timing._

Again, Angela never was his girlfriend, despite him wistfully wanting her to be in the past, but it still embarrassed him beyond recognition to be caught in strange situations… Her high strung personality never really matched his lifestyle, sketchy at best, and he always felt like she silently judged him a little. Or something.

When she cleared her voice loudly, he knew she was saying something to him and he should have probably answered. “What?”

“I said, is this a… bad time?” there was that look again. Tight lips, uncomfortable gaze… she was trying hard not to intrude, but she politely disapproved something about the whole thing, despite knowing it was not her place to.

“Yes. I mean no, I just…” _can’t tell you what I’ve been doing, more than ever. I’m sorry Angela, but if before you were just an innocent person I didn’t want to involve, now you’re a liability._ “Come in.” He opened the door a little more to let her in, figuring it would be quicker to just listen to what she had to say and get it over with.

He threw on the nearest pair of pants and the t-shirt he had just thrown off, feeling at too much of a disadvantage, in just his underwear, and tried to cut to the chase. “Was there something you needed?” It was curious that it hadn’t been a problem with a near stranger seconds ago, but he chalked it up to the fact that he always tried to live up to the invisible standard of sorts that being Angela’s friend set, not seeing any other explanation around it.

Angela hugged her own arms, clearly distressed now that she was actually faced with whatever she had set out to do. “Well… I was just worried about you, I mean… with all that happened…” she started, struggling to find the right way to put it, “I mean, I quit before things turned too bad at Allsafe, but I heard it’s on the brink of going under and… wondered if you knew what you were going to do after this…”

 _You’re not saying what I think you’re saying._ He narrowed his eyes at her, refusing to believe she was actually suggesting that she could get him into Evil Corp, much like she got him into Allsafe to begin with. “I’ll figure something out, don’t worry about me.” He assured her, biting back the bitter taste that rose into his throat at the idea of having lost a very dear friend to a fucking corporation.

“Are you sure? I mean… I know you must think I’m the biggest hypocrite in the world right now, but I figured… I’d do what I have to, you know?”

 _I know, you’re still one of the good ones, but it’s what surrounds you now that I hate. We can still be friends, I just… won’t tell you things._ “I know. And I know why you’re here.” He said, offering her a smile he didn’t really feel, “Thanks, but no. Really, I can take care of myself.”

“It sure looks like it.” She remarked, biting her lip afterwards, as if she regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth.

 _Wait, is this about Alina now? What does she care?_ He shook his head, deciding to not dwell too much on it. “I’m sorry, was there something else you wanted?” he hated being curt with her, but they had things to do and it wasn’t safe. It was for the better, really.

“Um, no. I just… wanted to see if you were okay, you know… we haven’t talked much ever since my, uh…” ever since what could be considered a pretty big betrayal, best intentions and need for self-preservation notwithstanding. She knew that, and obviously felt incredibly guilty about it. Still, it had been her choice, and like everything, she was living with the consequences. It wasn’t like it had been all that easy for her, and she probably was dealing with some pretty serious shit right now. But he had his own to worry about, and she couldn’t realistically expect him to always be on call to solve her messes for her. He could only hope she would come to understand that. “Either way, I can see you’re more than okay, so… I’ll be off.” She cleared her throat again. “I’m happy for you by the way.” She didn’t look all that happy, despite how hard she was trying to be supportive... that at least hadn't changed, she always tried to see the best in things. And people. “It’s good that you’re, uh… seeing someone. After… you know… it’s good… that you’re recovering.”

 _Oh for fuck’s sake._ He closed his eyes and held back a grimace. It really wasn’t like that. It was the opposite of that; they were together on a crusade to avenge Shayla and honor her memory, it was pretty much all that there was. Well, that and getting rid of the criminals who could decide they want to settle their beef with Elliot at any time, but that part was need-to-know.

Something on his face must have shown, because Angela coughed lightly and smiled at him, the meek puppy look coming really easily to her, big baby blue eyes and all. “I’ll just go.” She concluded, turning back to get out of the apartment. “Catch up some other time?”

“Yeah sure.” He was so weirded out by this entire encounter that he wasn’t even registering her words or movements, he basically said those last two words to the sound of the closing door.

Only when he was finally alone he sat down and was able to properly process it all. It was almost too much; pure, sweet Angela resorting to working for Evil Corp, and thinking he’d be up for doing the same, not to mention showing up at his place in the middle of his newest ‘mission’.

 _Definitely some karmic lesson I’m missing._ He took his clothes back off, hoping no more distractions would separate him from a well-deserved, long and hot shower.

And then he’d drink some more of that coffee, it was fucking delicious.

 

Lisa was having a rough morning. She had been trying to use less, lately, she really did, but it was just so hard to stop. Slippery slopes and all. Fred had looked like a saviour, two days ago, bringing her some more when she was out; but when it came to it… she thought back about Alina’s words. Some of the other girls at the pub also knew about her problem and were sympathetic, but she was the only one who kept trying.

Sometimes it pissed her off, because it set up a comparison she really didn’t want to make, and even though Lisa knew her friend didn’t mean it that way, it made her feel like the other was treating her like some kind of charity chase… she hated feeling like that –mostly because she knew she brought it upon herself. Still, the fact that Alina kept trying at least meant that someone gave a shit about it, unlike the ex-boyfriend who basically took over her life before starting to psychologically abuse her and then calling her ungrateful when she decided she had enough, or the absent parents that instead of helping her with her issues turned away from her when they found out what she was doing to escape from those.

Either way, the words of the one person who seemed to want what was good for her in the midst of the shitfest that was her life were still ringing in her head, and she figured she’d try and cut back a little, see where it went from there. Her phone’s ringtone made her jump, and she cursed herself for being so agitated over nothing. “Hello? Alina, hey… I was just… brushing my hair, I have the afternoon shift today.”

On the other side of the line, her friend’s voice sounded slightly off. _«Hey, can you tell Adrian that I won’t be coming in tonight? I overdid it a bit in the gym yesterday and I can’t even lift my arms today.»_

Gym? Wasn’t it Wednesday afternoons that she went to the gym? “You went two days in a row?” it’s not like she wanted to be nosy, but Alina took an interest in what happened to her, and returning the favour was the least she could do.

 _«Um, yeah, and it turns out it’s not that good an idea.»_ maybe she was imagining things, but that laughter seemed a bit forced, _«So can you do me this little favour?»_

She probably was overthinking, but one particular detail over the last few days came back to her mind and she smiled into the receiver, “Are you sure this is about Muay Thai and not about the guy you spent half your shift chatting up a couple days ago?” she asked, laughter bubbling in her chest, “He was cute…” she even dragged out the ‘u’, just to tease her a bit.

 _«What? No!»_ Lisa might have a slight addiction problem, but she wasn’t dumb. Such an indignant denial from a person usually as laid back as Alina was pretty much confirmed her suspicions.

“Okay, whatever you say, I’ll take care of Adrian.” Anyways, she’d let her off the hook… “But afterwards I want _details!_ ” …for now.

She hung up dismissing Alina’s protests with a “Yeah, right” and “see ya tomorrow”, smile still on her face. This was the part of her friendship with the redhead that she didn’t mind… always finding reasons to smile and laugh. Gathering her smooth black hair in a long braid, she took a deep breath and grabbed bag and keys. Time to face another day of work.

 

Work at the pub mostly meant dealing with lots of men ogling you, a few women judging you and everything in-between generally being mildly annoying. The waitress was surprised to find Fred in before sunset, and even more surprised to see him call to her –they usually tried to avoid conversation when people could see them.

“Say, is your friend here? What’s her name, the ginger one…”

“Alina?” that was strange. Well, she did see them talking the other evening and Fred was quite vocal about what he wanted with her friend, but still. Something in his tone didn’t transmit the usual horny idiot vibe. “She’s not on shift today. Why?”

“Oh nothin’, just you know… I keep in touch… like I do.” Except that no, he didn’t. “You know what she was doing yesterday? There’s this dude she was supposed to introduce to me for a deal…”

Now that she knew nothing about. But it all sounded off to her, firstly because she knew Alina would never go out of her way to hook people up with the likes of Fred, and second because everything about this conversation felt immensely wrong, like this guy and her redhead friend were meant to be on different universes, nevermind within speaking distance. She didn’t know why, but felt compelled to protect her. “Really? No, she was at my place yesterday night… you know, girls’ movie night and all.” When you’re an addict, you get used to lying off the top of your head, mostly to keep people out of your business, and this one time Lisa was happy she had gotten so good at it. “Oh! Actually!” she added, as if just remembering, “She told me to tell you that she passed the number, and that after that it was no longer her problem. That ring a bell with you?”

Fred inhaled sharply. He looked unconvinced, but it wasn’t like he had any reason to doubt her. “Hm. Kinda.” He muttered, scratching his stubble, “I guess whoever the dude is will drop by if he wants to get to business. Meh, fuck them both.”

“Yeah, well… you want your usual?”

The man pondered about it for a second, but then rose from his chair, not caring too much about the scraping of its feet against the floor. “Nah, I’ll swing by later, toots.” And with that, he left, fishing his pockets for his phone as he walked away. He had some explaining to do, and his boss wasn’t going to be happy.

“Hey chief? It might not be the same chick…” he said, interrupted by a rant about incompetence, “No, but she wasn’t out…” of course he didn’t have proof of that particular fact, but it wasn’t a good idea to give unreliable sources to justify already unreliable information, “I know but this one really didn’t look like much.” Not everyone knows fighting isn’t about size or power, apparently. “I’ll keep an eye on her just in case. Okay.”

What a crap day. First his boss calls him in a rage about crazy chicks apparently thrashing his main distribution place, and then he is the one who gets chewed out because apparently it’s his fault. But it was absurd… played like that by a skinny ginger bitch? It just couldn’t be.

Still, for the safety of his own ass, he would surely be watching her more carefully, from now on.

 

“It figures it would have been too easy if he simply was the key to everything.” Darlene huffed, kicking her feet up and crossing her legs on the armrest of Elliot’s couch. This was going to take a while.

Terry Akers, known as the ‘chief’ at Club Pulse and around the recent drug dealing business, was just the guy who procured the goods and decided who to sell it to and for how much. Sure, he called some of the shots, but it wasn’t like they were looking for a chain of command… they were looking for knowledge, for the person who had the others’ names and numbers, who gave the passwords and the connection. These groups had to have some kind of provider nowadays, someone who did for them what Elliot used to do for Allsafe –to some extent, at least. It was ridiculous to think any kind of business could be done otherwise, in 2016.

Akers had a rich criminal resume, ranging from minor offenses to what was chalked up as involuntary manslaughter, and Elliot had to wonder what dumbass ever let the guy out on parole, but even though surfing through his private texts and emails got them enough to at the very least spark an investigation, they still didn’t have what they wanted.

They needed the exact whereabouts of Fernando Vera and the other dude. And after them, they’d throw in the slammer chief and that Fred guy. _And make sure they get no chance to get out, and no protection from the inside. Find a way to make any other criminal not want to associate with them._ One possibility was making an example out of them… deleting them in every way possible and leaving a sound message. Don’t mess with the anonymous force who did this, or you’ll get deleted too. It would take some serious work and a lot more risks of exposure on his part, but as far as lessons went he had learnt his, and didn’t want retaliation to be an option this time. Or ever.

He sighed, kicking back a little his chair himself. “Well it’s not like we expected to fix this in one afternoon, didn’t we?” there was one i.p. to which the majority of the traffic from their network seemed to converge, and that probably was their go-to sysadmin; but despite his better hopes said admin wasn’t a moron like the rest of them, and he still hadn’t found an accessible proxy. It didn’t matter, he would soon enough… he always did.

In the meantime, they decided Darlene would create a worm and feed it to the first access point they found, so that the admin would at least be forced to come out and fix it. And that’s what they had been doing all afternoon and for the better part of the evening.

After all, this time she had more time to work with, and could devise a worm stealthy enough to bypass simple antiviruses. They hadn’t even found their entrance yet, so it really was a moot point for now. Darlene turned so she was on her belly and blew a puff of smoke at her brother. “Hey.” She called out, “You never told me how it went with petal. You boned her yet?”

“You’re never gonna let this go, are you?” he huffed at her, but wasn’t really appalled by his sister’s playful teasing. He knew she meant no harm.

 _I know she’s probably pushing me to get something going on with Alina simply to remind me that I could reach out to people who aren’t my own sister, if I really wanted to, that I could spark a connection with another human being and enjoy it, without necessarily having to be paralyzed by anxiety or the fear of getting hurt…_ but part of Elliot’s counter to that was, how did she know he wouldn’t?

 _She doesn’t… just like she didn’t know with Trenton until she tried._ Problem was, he wasn’t sure he wanted to try at all, what with Shayla getting murdered because of him and all. Maybe he was bad luck for the ladies, if crap like that was true. The rest of it being that really, they barely knew each other and it wasn’t really a good time for playdates. Despite all that, Darlene seemed very convinced that what would happen, would happen regardless.

He just wasn’t sure what exactly was that supposed to be.

“Nuh-uh. Now spill it, and I want dirty details!” she teased, perfectly aware that her shut-in weirdo brother probably barely even looked at the poor gal.

“You sure? There’s some pretty wild stuff in there.” Sarcastic Elliot was the best kind of Elliot. Mostly because it was a more raw and genuine part of himself, that almost no one got to see. And it made Darlene feel special, and loved in their own way, that he’d bite and engage with her at times. “Let me see… I brought her back here. Gave her an ice pack and pain killers. Let her sleep on the bed. And this morning she went home.”

His sister laughed heartily. “Woah man, slow down, my poor innocent ears!”

“Yeah, I also gave her one of my own shirts to wear for the night.” His tone was almost childish by now, and he dissolved into a chuckle, shaking his head at her. “I really don’t know what to tell you, Darlene… I just… feel like we don’t really know each other.”

Which was very ironic, considering he hacked her, and even if he hadn’t he would have been able to find out nearly everything about her pretty easily… what was different from actually knowing her –he had learnt after Shayla – was that knowing the “what”, without the “why”, “how” and “to what purpose”, was like having a series of abstract pictures without explanation: you could see everything, but you weren’t any wiser about their meaning.

And in all the conversations and emails he hacked, it was always oddly… superficial. Alina had a knack for giving people just what they wanted and nothing more. She’d reveal an event, or anecdote, but not what sparked it, or her feelings towards it. Maybe because people tend to be satisfied pretty easily if they get what they want right away, and won’t go in depth, and maybe she was fine with that. She definitely had a maze of her own, it was just covered up by all the open doors pointed to brick walls.

“Well you know what you can do to know more~” He did want to know more about her, he was just… still burned. He offered a hesitant smile at the way Darlene’s almost singsong remark suggested the exact thing he was too scared to do yet. “I know I would.”

And, in the private confines of his mind, he could admit that it was downright fucking adorable how his sister tried to encourage him throwing in the fact that she “approved” of Alina. Like it would be of reassurance –and, to be completely honest, it kind of was.

They stood there, smiling at each other for a couple seconds, before Elliot adverted his eyes, still feeling slightly guilty about Darlene’s split lip. She caught the movement, and stood up to go kneel towards him and hug him. “Hey. I’m fine, okay?” she insisted, while he cradled his face in her neck, “I’m more than fine, this got me laid last night.”

Elliot pretended to not hear her, but she could feel him shaking in her embrace with silent laughter. “So… wanna go hit up our petal with our progress?” not that there was much progress to speak of, but they did find one call in Fred’s phone history that was worth mentioning, if only for the uncanny timing, and they needed to tell Alina to be extra careful. “I can come with, so you won’t have to get all shy about it.”

He broke the embrace, pretending to be offended. “Shut up.” _But yeah, we have to keep her in the loop._ He nodded at her and got up from the chair.

After all, there couldn’t be too many petite, red-headed women who knew Muay Thai and beat up drug dealers, around. It was a race now, to see who got found out first.

 

_~tbc_


	6. acc3ss.p0int5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elliot realises that access points aren't always what they seem, and that not being completely in control isn't always the end of the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, grossly unbeta'ed.  
> Written on pure instinct and right before I have to get to work.  
> Closing shift tonight, ughhh.... I'm gonna be a zombie tonight, and that's why I wanted to get the chapter out there as soon as I could.  
> Everything I said in the previous ones applies, I just really like the story and the characters and want more and more.  
> I just hope my own little plot is still doing them all justice.  
> Crap I have to leave soon.  
> Will check back on this for anything that doesn't make sense as soon as I can.  
> Enjoy~~

There’s nothing more tedious, for a martial artist, than sitting around doing nothing. Calling in sick at work had meant that Alina no longer had to worry about getting stuff done before the evening rolled around, and so she was left with quite a bit of freedom and nothing to entertain herself with. The bath bomb had been nice, but there was only so much time she could spend soaking in the tub while listening to movie soundtracks.

She tried to drop down and do some push-ups afterwards, but even if her shoulder did feel up to the task, there still was just enough pain that told her toughing it out wouldn’t be a good idea this time. And that was why she settled for just lying down on her bed and mull things over, while relaxing a bit more in nothing but her beige and red flannel and black gym shorts.

“This is still all so crazy.” She muttered to herself. Whenever she tried to think about it, it didn’t even look like her life, it was like reading a story, it was just so… improbable. Even the people she was living this with seemed too atypical to be true. Darlene especially made her a bit nervous, so headstrong and always stubborn and decisive, but it was also part of her charm, especially since, when all was said and done, she had the vivid impression that her heart was in a good place. Elliot was a different matter entirely. The guy clearly had lots of issues, and she wasn’t sure she could understand all of them, but despite not being the most insightful of people she glimpsed enough of him to know that he too, deep down, was a good person –despite any possible amounts of mild self-hatred.

That was another thing. For whatever reason, Elliot didn’t really seem to like himself, and she was stumped about the why. But then again, she was probably biased, and was enough of an adult to admit that, especially after shamelessly watching the man undress in his own house.

Alina chuckled to herself. “God that was such a bitch move…” and yet, the memory of that moment alone was enough to distract her from the very real fact that they were all risking their lives, going toe to toe with an entire gang of drug dealers and who knew what other criminals. Rationally, that was way bigger and more important than the fact that she thought that Elliot guy was attractive –even though she initially only approached him because she thought he was just another creeper she was going to have to kick out of the pub– but she knew a thing or two about Rome and however the fuck long it took to build it… the exact words weren’t coming to her mind at the moment, but the bottom line of the saying was that she couldn’t solve big issues in one day, especially not on her own, and should focus on the things she could deal with day after day, one at a time.

Turning on her side, she caught her reflection in the mirror and the white band-aid still on her cheekbone caught her attention. There was another memory that made her smile. Giving up, she figured it was okay to think about this for a bit, instead of brooding about the many ways she could die, and sat up, gently removing the plaster from her face. The dull pain she still felt wasn’t that much, and didn’t wipe the little smile from her lips, as she thought back to the miniscule, almost imperceptible little caress that she felt. Elliot clearly had a problem with touching people, but in that situation and with nothing better to say to express empathy, he tried and got the message across through touch.

Alina didn’t know him that well, but figured that had to amount to something… regardless of any chances of getting him naked again, she definitely hoped they could get to know each other better, at the very least. And, well, stay in touch after the whole ordeal was over, if they lived to.

A not too subtle knock on her door startled her out of her musings, and somehow she knew who it was before she even heard the voice outside. “Hiya, petal~ it’s us!”

Darlene made her way in as soon as the door was opened, taking off her leather jacket and throwing in on the nearest chair. Bracelets clinking on her wrist at every movement, with Elliot following close behind but still burrowed into his hoodie as he always tended to be whenever he was outside of his comfort zone.

“Not gonna lie, I was expecting way higher quantities of girly shit.” Alina watched silently as Darlene looked around her apartment, a place not much bigger than her brother’s with a Bruce Lee poster in a corner and a very full and visibly very frequently used bookshelf as the two most distinctive features of the living space. “That, or a Sparta kind of setup, with dumbbells and everything.”

She didn’t seem to have a tv, and the general atmosphere of the place was just calm and relaxed, green and wood being the two dominant colours. Elliot’s lips twitched a bit upwards.

 _Jade green._ Her favourite, according to many a conversation and/or email security question.

“Well, I have a pull-up bar on my bedroom door, if that’s all the same…” the redhead seemed to be comfortable enough to joke around with Darlene and he was free to look around, that one log entry of Fred’s phone history still scratching the back of his mind.

The guys at the club wouldn’t remember their face too clearly, but if somehow they managed to realize that they were found through Fred’s phone, it would only be a matter of time before they reached Alina.

“Hey, can I see your computer?” he interrupted their conversation about why lifting weights when lifting your own body is a much better exercise, but he figured they were just killing time while trying to decide how to go about this.

Alina nodded to him, and opened the door to her bedroom. He tried not to look around too much, and didn’t need to, as her pc was on a desk right beside the bed, already turned on and opened on Steam.

 _If only there was time for games._ It kind of made him smile, that she could more or less relate to spending a lot of time behind a screen, if only vaguely, and he turned to look at her. “Can I tinker around a bit?”

For the most part, Alina was expecting more of a series of information on people and things to do, and this confused her, but she shrugged and nodded at him. “Um, sure, go to town.” She conceded, sitting down on her bed, behind him. “Not like there’s much you haven’t seen, am I right?”

Elliot didn’t respond to that, but Darlene plopped down beside her and chucked. “You know, that sounds kinda dirty.” She said, bumping shoulders with the redhead –and jumping when she realised she probably shouldn’t have done that.

“No it’s okay, it almost doesn’t hurt anymore!” and it really almost didn’t, despite the small grimace that escaped her face. It was mostly the fact that the impact had been unexpected, and she brushed it off, picking up their playful banter right where it was left off. “And well… it’s not my fault now, is it? You guys did get an eyeful right away.”

“Yeah, especially with those uniforms.” Subject completely shifted, Darlene watched closely for any kind of reaction from her brother, but he was busying himself with securing Alina’s pc and wasn’t really listening to them anymore. He would be no fun to poke at until he emerged back from there. Shaking her head and sighing, she turned back to Alina. “Listen, we dropped by mostly to tell you to be careful about that Fred guy, Elliot says he was probably looking for you today, because his cell made a call to chief’s number right this afternoon. We weren’t able to intercept it to know what they were saying, but even though the call only lasted three minutes, it was enough to get who knows what orders.”

That was a cold shower, if Alina ever needed one. “Do they know us?” she asked, expression turning more worried.

“I don’t think so, and Elliot made sure to corrupt the cctv recordings from the night at the club, so they shouldn’t remember our faces too clearly…” Darlene was trying to be as reassuring as she could, but they needed to be careful anyway, “But since this Fred guy knows who you are and where you work, let’s try and not give him confirmation of the fact that you’re the same chick who beat up his boss, yeah?”

The redhead nodded. It would be a smart thing to do. “Yeah, sure.” She could avoid him for a while. Start getting some more middle shifts, so she wouldn’t have to go home at 3a.m. and, more importantly, she would get off before Fred’s usual arrival time.

After all, it wasn’t like it would last long enough for him to get suspicious, if they managed to take the gang down soon enough. Still, Alina didn’t look so casual about the whole thing anymore, and Darlene watched her closely, while she watched her brother running his fingers over her pc like a pianist.

“Okay, I changed your antivirus and updated all the security protocols I could, so you should be a bit more protected if someone does come looking for you through the net.” Elliot’s voice cut through the silence that had settled between the girls –ha had sort of followed the generic flow of their conversation but trusted Darlene to take care of the important points, as he turned towards them and lowered his hood.

Alina smiled at him, nodding again. “Okay, thanks.” Was all that she said, not really knowing what more could be said so far.

Then Darlene rubbed her hands on her face, resisting the urge to yell at the both of them that this was bullshit and they should get over themselves and fuck already, instead getting up with a bounce. She knew the signs when her brother started crawling out from his invisible shell, and that little gesture there meant that, after the initial discomfort, he was at ease enough to have people look at him and not hide under a black hood. “Well, that was most of it. Don’t know about you guys, but I’m beat.” She declared, stretching her arms over her head for good measure, “I also have a worm to build, so… I’m just gonna go, okay, petal? Elliot here will fill you in with the rest of the details.”

The look on her brother’s face was just precious, she knew that he knew what she was doing.

 _God damn it, Darlene._ He had to close his eyes and reopen them for a second to not openly protest, looking down at his jeans before he could look back up.

“Okay, I’ll see myself out, bye~” she left both of them there, before either of the two could react, scurrying out the door with a self-satisfied little smile, in a flurry of pleated skirt and clanking black boots.

Trenton would be so proud of her if she knew the lengths she was going to for her brother’s sake. Maybe that was something she could tell her about, leaving out the details. It would make that cute smile blossom on her face again.

Darlene picked up her pace. First, she would go work on her worm for a bit, then she’d go to see where Trenton was. She had a feeling things would get a lot more complicated very soon, and wanted to pile up the good moments while she still could.

 

“What do you mean you don’t know? You piece of shit, you know what this did to my rep?” Terry Akers wasn’t a happy man. First, two crazy bitches sent to shit a night that was going perfectly, then word that two of his crew were beaten up by said chicks got out and he became a laughing stock.

And now this. “I don’t know, man. I don’t know if I wanna trust your little club to place my stuff, if all it takes is two little skanks to waste it.” The scorn was evident in the courier’s voice, and he couldn’t stand it.

“Oh you think it’s funny?” he asked, sliding a hand into his pocket.

“Well you gotta admit, it is pretty funny.” The nerve of this guy. It was making him look bad in front of his underlings and informers. No matter. He knew what he had to do to restore authority.

He got his knife out and stabbed the still laughing courier right in the throat. “You’re no use to me if you’re just here to fucking laugh.” He hissed, removing the knife and letting the guy drop down and choke on his own blood on the floor of the abandoned warehouse they were having this little meeting in.

Looking around at the faces of his two men and the informer that was called in, he was satisfied to see fear restored. “Make sure that whoever replaces that guy is actually up for business.” He barked, as one of the men nodded and left the room. “Now. Lou, you’re supposed to know shit about people. Fred seemed sure that if someone found out shit at the pub he deals out his stuff in, you’d know about it.”

“I don’t know anything, I swear!” the fat man was cowering already, not wanting to end up knifed like the other dude. He wracked his mind for something to tell the chief, but came up high and dry. Unless… but it couldn’t be. They only gave him a vague description of the two women that made the commotion at the club, because apparently the security footage was wiped. That was a sign that they went there quite prepared, and one of Terry’s men was convinced that this was a hacker thing and they got to them remotely, somehow… his mind went back to the girl who talked to him a couple nights prior, allegedly looking for a “good time”.

Crap, he didn’t remember what she looked like, or whether she even told him her name. “L-look, maybe there’s someone in that pub, but I need time to find them. P… please give me some time.”

“You have a week.” Was all Akers said, deciding to now waste more time with the sap. His little show of cruelty had adverted the crisis, but he’d need to find those two little skanks along with whoever was covering for them and kill them all, if he didn’t want his credibility completely shot to hell. “Same goes for all of your snitch buddies. Don’t come back until you have their tits on a plate.”

What was most humiliating bout the whole thing was that it had been two women. All it took was a nice ass and a kick to the face, and now a whole operation was on the verge of collapsing.

 

“…and that’s what we’re going to do, as soon as we manage to find a proxy we can use as an access point.” Meanwhile, Elliot tried his best to explain to Alina their next move, while she tried her best to understand.

“Okay… I can’t say I got everything, but I think I got enough.” She joked, scratching absentmindedly at the base of her ponytail, “I trust you guys, just tell me who I have to beat up.” She added with a wink.

They had both been sitting on her bed for a while now, mostly talking about what was going to happen next and making plans. Elliot was quite proud of himself, he was handling this rather well, not panicking or shutting himself off like usual. It helped that they weren’t really getting personal just yet, but still… the “mission” related things to say were running out, and he was slowly coming back to the realization that he was alone with the redhead, in a bedroom, again.

“Will do.” He watched her finally let her hair loose, after feeling uncomfortable in that ponytail for the past 15 minutes. Hair that long and that thick was probably heavy, and it would be easier for Alina to just cut it shorter… but he had to admit, it was kinda pretty like this.

She exhaled deeply after that, running her hands through her hair for a moment –making him follow her fingers with his eyes and wonder idly what would it feel like if he did the same– before reopening her eyes and settle her gaze back on him, as their conversation naturally had died out.

 _Turns out she doesn’t really know how to do this crap either._ He thought, a feeling of affinity warming his chest slightly. Not that this made the whole thing any less awkward.

At least he wasn’t alone, as she also seemed not too sure of what to say next. “Um… do you want anything to, uh…”

“No!” he answered a bit too quickly, not too willing to go through courtesy bullcrap neither of them actually cared about, before clearing his voice and settling back down, “I mean, no… I’m good.”

Alina smiled at him and tried to relax some more. She had removed the plaster to let the scab breathe a bit so the skin underneath could regenerate faster… the bruise was still there and it contrasted a lot with the other side of her face, where freckles were the only thing marring her skin, but it would be gone in a few days. Elliot was still partially beating himself up over it, but both her and Darlene told him multiple times to not blame himself, so he figured he would try to let it go and just… be considerate?

“How’s that, does it still hurt?” he asked, reaching out with a hand but stopping mid-air.

Unexpectedly, Alina took that hand and guided it towards her bruised cheek. “I’m not going to shatter, you know.” She remarked, letting go of him to allow him to either retract his hand or do whatever he was too anxious to do right away. “It’s, uh… well, pain is still there, but it’s subsiding.” She also tilted her head slightly towards Elliot’s touch, when his fingers didn’t move away from her cheek.

“How…” the hacker was unable to tear his eyes from the sight. The contrast in skin colour between them was probably contributing to his fascination with the whole thing, but what was even more captivating to him was how could she be so open, confidently sitting there, letting someone’s hands on her already injured face, right in the middle of her personal space, to boost. “How do you stay like this?” . Somehow, this felt way more intimate than when she carelessly stripped right in front of him. Maybe because they were both aware of the same things, now. Sort of.

Eyes still closed, she let her smile widen, having intercepted the meaning behind his question. “I’m not at as much of a disadvantage as it seems.” She explained, opening her eyes to lock gazes with him, “It’s just skin. You’re not sucking my soul.”

So it was exactly like he imagined. Let everyone have the surface, so that they’d think there was nothing underneath. _But telling me this implies that she’s letting me see through that._

“What? Does it feel like you are?” Alina asked, teasing tone evident in her voice, but he didn’t find it in himself to answer just yet, deciding instead to take advantage of the access he was granted, like a true hacker.

“Not really… but…” Elliot moved his hand, the tip of his fingers brushing the redhead’s jawline and then her neck, stopping at the hem of the flannel she was wearing, just below the clavicle.

_I can feel her heartbeat._

On top of that, the warmth of her pale skin was inviting enough for him to lean closer.

Alina placed her hand over his, scooting a little closer as well. “See? Was that so hard?” she barely whispered, also making him realize that they were close enough for him to feel her breath on his lips.

There were probably a range of bad jokes he could have made in answer to that, but his voice was failing him, again. What would happen if he closed that distance? Would it be different from all the times he did the same in a drugged stupor? Would it feel the same as that one kiss he shared with Shayla, the one time they got so intimate without him being high on some kind of hallucinogen?

Would it last?

His gaze had already dropped to her lips, rosy and inviting, and she seemed to be waiting for him to make a decision, looking back and forth between his own lips and his eyes.

Truth to be told, Alina was just as captivated by the entire exchange as he was, and she could feel Elliot’s gaze almost burning her skin –it probably was because of the colour of his eyes; she had never seen eyes like that, not quite blue but not green either, and yet too warm to actually be grey, and it was bullshit that she was thinking about something as inane as his eye colour while they were about to kiss. Or she was going to fucking headbutt the guy if he didn’t make a decision soon.

Elliot’s mind was swarmed with so many thoughts, all running in different directions, why he shouldn’t, why he should just let go, what was he even doing still there, and in the end the last one won. He drew in a breath and withdrew slightly, looking up at brown eyes speckled slightly with green. “I, uh… I should go, now.”

_Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid._

He could almost hear Darlene’s voice calling him a bitch again. He was such a coward, terrified of letting people close, and to what avail? For whatever reason, Alina seemed to like him –enough to let him get up close and personal with her, at least– so what was missing, really?

Elliot guessed he wouldn’t find out today. The moment or whatever it was seemed to have passed, as she dropped her hand and bit back a sigh.

“Okay, well…” she got up, walking over towards the door at a speed that didn’t really match the atmosphere from before, “Come find me if you need anything, yeah?”

He nodded, following after her dazedly, still wondering why the hell didn’t he just take the chance when it was right there in front of him, but they both stopped once they reached the front door.

“Yeah, I…” inside his mind, he was still partially ranting and chastising himself for how he kept drawing parallels to Shayla. This wasn’t Shayla, he had to let go of that, Alina was her own person and whatever there was, supposedly growing between them, wouldn’t necessarily end up with her dead because of him.

“Hey. Relax. You didn’t suck my soul, promise.” She joked, startling him out of his train of thought yet again, lingering on the doorstep with him, as if reluctant to say goodbye just yet.

 _I so want to kiss her now._ He was in the middle of reprimanding himself for missing his chance, but one thing about Shayla that he remembered, one particular piece of advice, drew the tiniest smile on his lips and he leaned forward at the last moment.

_«Next time don’t ask. It’s lame.»_

Alina’s lips were just as soft as he imagined, and he would remember the sensation for a long time, despite having given her a barely-there peck, a feathery stolen touch.

“Okay.” He muttered, eyelids still half closed while he breathed in their proximity one last time. “I’ll see you soon.” He had a tiny smile when he retreated, even though he was not quite looking at her in the eyes anymore.

She seemed quite taken aback from his actions, but he didn’t want to stay and risk overanalysing things again. He turned back and left immediately after he heard her reciprocate his goodbye with a “See you” of her own and a nod.

All but fleeing the scene, Elliot missed the vaguely disbelieving smile on Alina’s face as she looked back at his retreating form, but he guessed that, for now, the fact that she hadn’t kicked the shit out of him for kissing her would be enough.

Darlene was going to be so proud.

 

_~tbc_


	7. m4lwar3.al3rt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's always when the cogwheels start to move that all sorts of things tie in and disrupt the mechanism. Consequences are always to be expected, and the last few days are no different for our heroes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap I think this is the longest one yet, marking at 5800-something words.  
> At least it's somewhat moving forward. Not as action-packed as the one where people got beat up, but there should be more of that in the next one, if I get my way.  
> I also wanted to insert more Angela for a second, though, because I didn't want the short comedic interlude from last time to give off the impression she was being bashed. Angela is an easy to misinterpret character, but despite her build giving off a bit of a "coinceited" vibe (not sure is the right word in English) and the way she gets presented being a bit "marysue-ish" at times, she does have some complexity and is not actully a sue, for the exact reason that she does have some visible flaws and dislikeable aspects, not to mention the fact that she makes mistakes that have direct consequences over her storylines (which doesn't happen to actual marysues). 
> 
> That out of the way, I'm really insecure about this whole thing and I can only hope is as interesting as I set out for it to be.  
> Still grossly unbeta'ed, but I went through the spellcheck today, so it shouldn't be too cringe-worthy. I promise there'll be more action soon, but I had to build it up first.  
> Enjoy~~

“Man, I keep telling you, it wasn’t the waitress.” Lou was having a rough couple of days. He should’ve known that pretty faces were dangerous and that was no exception. He just thought he was going to get lucky when out of the blue a juicy little piece of ass started chatting him up and wanting in on the clubbing scene; but then someone beat the chief’s ass, and now a guy was dead, chief was pissed, and Fred was grilling him. “There was another girl. Reddish-blonde hair, nice boobs, asking lots of questions.”

Fred narrowed his eyes at him, seemingly unconvinced. “When?” he asked, arm crossed but well ready to start throwing punches if he thought the informer was screwing him.

“Tuesday, I think? You weren’t in… and this babe came in and started asking me things.” That was another side of drug dealing… Lou was the equivalent of a PR manager for them. He didn’t make any deals himself, officially had a clean record, but knew what got sold where, who did it, and who ask to get in touch. He had always been frustrated at being labelled as “undesirable” and “unwanted”, society’s normalcy standards making him an outcast both through superficial appearances and attitude; so he took advantage of more than the occasional pretty face on the brink of withdrawals by exchanging contacts for “favours”… everyone who knew him knew that, and it didn’t really come as a surprise to Fred that the man actually tried to score by bragging about things he should have kept a little quieter.

Still, the chief did say that there were two of them, and it would be awfully coincidental that there would be a third, different woman. But chief wouldn’t tolerate more failures, so they had to be sure.

“You know what? I don’t care.” Fred finally said, grabbing the other by the collar from where he was sitting across him, “Find that bitch, find the other skank that was with her, and tell our tech guy to find the bastard that works with them. Got it?”

As soon as he was released, Lou smoothed out his jacket and nodded, stuttering out reassurances and taking his leave. Fred put both his elbows on the table and leaned his face on his hands. He was surrounded by fucking cowards.

“Rough night?”

Lisa’s voice, as well as a glass of beer entering his peripheral vision, made the dealer raise his head. “Well, it’s all better now, Liz.” He gave her what could pass for a crooked smile. Lisa was pretty. Nice and curvy, long straight black hair and full lips reminding him a bit of his wife. Fred sometimes felt bad about how things turned out for her; but business was business, and other things were just sentimental bullshit that was going to screw you over.

It was much better to let someone you could grow to care about self-destruct, instead of trying to fix yourself… that way your hands were still clean, you still got rid of burdens and you kept your money in the process. The guilt would pass when he was back home counting notes.

“Yeah, well. Thought you could use a drink.” She explained, leaning a bit on the edge of the table and winking at him. “On the house.”

“Say, babe… you look a bit rough around the edges too… what say we head back to my place and let loose, after your shift?” it wouldn’t be the first time, especially if a free hit was involved, but it hadn’t been happening for a while –not since Lisa started to make friends with the short ginger one. Fred definitely thought that girl should mind her own fucking business.

Lisa just smiled at him and shook her head. “Tempted, but no can do, handsome. Opening shift tomorrow means I need my beauty sleep.” She swiped her rag a bit on the man’s table, tidying up what she could and taking the empty plate and glasses, “Next time, for sure.”

Or maybe never. She made sure to walk away slowly and seem natural, but there was a reason she went through the trouble of approaching Fred with his favourite beer and flirting a little bit. Eavesdropping did come as a solid asset for any waitress worth her name, especially if you work afterhours in a place like that, and Lisa had heard more than enough.

And it couldn’t be some drug-induced misunderstanding; she had been clean for almost an entire day. She got into the staff room and took out her phone, sending a text to Alina.

_«I need to talk to you asap. Can I come over in the morning?»_

_«And this text couldn’t have waited until tomorrow? I was sleeping, Liz.»_

_«Trust me, we need to talk real soon. Ok?»_

_«Okay, geez… maybe I’ll finally get my movie night ;) »_

Sneaky little punk. Alina wasn’t even that much younger than her, a few months under her 28 years, and sometimes Lisa wondered whether she was a disappointing older sister, or if she had given up rights to the role entirely when she started using.

Well, there was a chance, coming to think of it. It was only a matter of whether she’d have the strength to outstretch her hand and ask. If she could tough it out for 24 more hours, the worst would be behind her and she could actually have a chance at taking back control.

 

“So, have you found out anything about the others?” speaking of chances, Darlene and Elliot were conspiring again, huddled up in a train carriage like many other times before.

He nodded at his sister’s question, leaning his head on her shoulder so they could speak quietly –being half past two and relatively scarce in population didn’t necessarily mean they could be careless. “The guy I made you approach first is actually part of them.”

“The fat one?” well, the dude did try to impress her by telling her he could get her into any late night party ever. She felt Elliot nod again against her shoulder.

“Louis Cowart. He is basically their PR, he scouts out junkies, hooks them up with Fred and gets a percentage off every deal and every person he brings in the night club.” He explained, leaving out for the moment the part where he basically forced various desperate clients to sleep with him before hooking them up with the dealer, knowing it would make Darlene too angry to keep being inconspicuous. Hell, when he found that out he almost felt sick.

 _What kind of trash must you be to take advantage of people when they’re at their most vulnerable, just so you can stick your dick in something?_ It was disgusting, and not just because of the sex.

“What a dickhead.” Darlene snuck a glance at her brother. He wasn’t telling everything that there was to it, she could tell, but it probably just wasn’t a good time right now. She exhaled softly. “And you say he knows everyone?”

He shrugged. “Not everyone, but should be in touch with whoever runs their network.” After all the two jobs were thickly entwined, “I’ll monitor his traffic and contacts, should find the right proxy to break in the network within a couple days. How’s the worm coming along?”

“Almost done… I still have to build it so that it makes a copy that steals access to the host if they try to quarantine and delete it with normal security programs.”

 _That’s my girl._ Thinking back on how the plan against Evil Corp started, he had to admit his sister had an incredible capability to bring to life deadly cybernetic weapons, her rootkit was one of the toughest he had ever seen. He nudged her a bit, biting back a chuckle, and let a companionable silence settle between them.

After a couple seconds, Darlene nudged him back. “Well, this is my stop. Get some rest, okay?”

He knew all too well where his sister was going, and honestly didn’t blame her for wanting to enjoy the peace while it lasted. She was looking forward so much to spending time with Trenton again that he couldn’t even find it in himself to tell her about what happened the night before –she would want him to confide in her, and that would take away time she could spend with the woman she loved. He could deal with whatever was happening to him, for now, and he just wanted Darlene to get however much happiness she could. Still, he couldn’t hold in a little secretive smirk . “Yeah, okay.”

Darlene heard the furtive tone in his voice a split second too late, and the subway doors had already closed between them. She shook her head at him and made a mental note to grill him properly, later on. But for now, she had more important activities on her schedule.

 

“You think this is going well, kiddo?”

 _Oh give me a fucking break. What is he? A manifestation of my self-loathing, the product of a dissociative disorder, the actual ghost of my dead father?_ Whatever the root of Mr. Robot’s appearances to him –and it was a devastating blow to come to terms with the fact that it was actual delusions – he never seemed to come unscathed from those. It was like all the things in his brain that he didn’t want to face took a physical form to pester him. “It’s going somewhere, and for now that’s enough.” He muttered, having come to terms with the fact that indulging him sometimes was the only way he could get rid of him when he didn’t want him around.

Just like provoking had been the only way to get him to come out when he had three days blacked out and needed to access the hidden recesses of his brain, where delusions and demons were. _Fat lot of good it did me, Tyrell is still in the wind and we’re at a standstill with Evil Corp while they try to figure out where to cut the losses._

Which was kinda the reason why Darlene suggested they took care of the “minor” problem of the gang still knowing their faces, as a “distraction”.

“And what if they find your girl before you find them?”

“She’s not my gi—”

“And what if they find your sister? Elliot, you could all be dead within days, how many times have we been over this, these people don’t mess around!” Fuck, it was so real. How could it be anything other than real? The confrontational tone, the piercing look of disappointment. “Remember Shayla? I warned you. I tried to tell you to let her become a memory. She was long dead before you even fucking spoke to those men, and you risked your life and freed an entire array of criminals for **nothing**!”

 _It’s not real. It’s not, it’s not, it’s not._ Elliot lowered his gaze, taking a few breaths before looking back up in Mr. Robot’s direction. “This time is different.” He said, barely even able to speak as his jaw tightened, much like his chest.

“Why? Because this time your girl can throw a few kicks?” Mr. Robot scoffed at him under his hat, “You think that’s gonna stop a bullet? They haven’t kidnapped her yet, but what happens once they do? Or if they do it to Darlene? They’re both gonna end up with their throats slit in a car trunk—”

“Stop bringing up Shayla.”

“Just like Shayla—”

“STOP!”

That earned him a few stares. There weren’t many people still on the train, but when you start yelling for no reason it usually catches the attention. Elliot tried to calm down, making himself as small as he could, while he stood up to get off.

“You’re wrong about Alina.” He told him, initiating dialogue first, for once, “She’s not a surrogate Shayla.”

“She’s not?” Mr. Robot looked skeptical, as far as illusory father figures went, while falling into step with him, up the stairs and towards the exit, “Isn’t that why you kind of like her? Isn’t it your chance at redemption from screwing up with Shayla?”

It was Elliot’s turn to scoff. There was no redemption for that kind of thing. He had fucked up big time, and the consequences would be with him forever –he could be letting it go, and maybe even move on with time, but nothing would erase the reality of what happened. But still, that had nothing to do with a half-Russian redhead who just wanted to help. “She’s not. She’s her own person.”

The fact that he was starting to like her was a consequence, a by-product of their close interactions, not the cause. This whole thing wasn’t about Alina, it had never been –he could have done it all without even speaking to her ever… only, if he hadn’t, Darlene would have probably been raped and killed at Club Pulse, alone; so it was a good thing that she was there to help out.

Mr. Robot sighed, as they reached the last few steps separating them from the exit. “I’m just saying, kiddo. You either got this, or you don’t. Ones and zeroes.” He stopped and fixed a pointed look at him, “Mistakes mean death. No half-assing it this time.”

 _Okay, that part you’re right about._ Elliot closed his eyes and nodded, wishing with every fibre of his being for a moment of peace. He could almost feel on his skin the mocking look Mr. Robot was throwing at him but when he opened his eyes again the man was gone. Wish granted, for now.

 

“What are you so worried about?” Trenton was starting to find it suspicious, that Darlene sought her out so often these days, but it wasn’t like she would complain about it. She simply sat back, as her companion laid down, head on her lap, and caressed long strands of strawberry blonde.

“Just that if this doesn’t go away I won’t be as pretty to you~” Darlene, for her part, made it really easy to not think about the problems and focus on the two of them… even if this meant she wouldn’t tell her things.

Trenton laughed at her a little. “Shut up. You know what I mean.”

“Well, you know…” Darlene sighed, turning so she was looking up and relishing in the touch of soft hands on her face, “This whole thing with my brother… I really think something good could come out with this girl, but he never lets himself have anything good… he’s a stubborn idiot.”

“Said the pot to the kettle.” That one was well deserved and she knew it. They both laughed, and Trenton caressed her face some more. “From what you’ve told me, it seems that if they’re meant to get along, they will, eventually.” It wasn’t that encouraging, considering she told Trenton very little, “Just give it some time. And be there for your brother… he needs you a lot.”

Darlene never stopped being amazed at how wise and insightful Trenton could be. She knew next to nothing about their real situation, and yet could say all the right things. True, she looked innocent, and small, and didn’t make a dashing first impression… but she was so much more than what it seemed on the surface. Just like the little quirks that had Darlene call her ‘klepto’ every now and then, there were many more things, entire worlds, hidden beneath dark soulful eyes and soft hijabs. It was one of the things she loved the most about Trenton… the depths not matching the outside at all, the beautiful complexity that didn’t want to be explained and didn’t feel the need to explain others. Just acceptance, and a warm caress underneath which she could relax, and forget, and not worry about expectations or burdens.

All she wanted was for her brother to find a person that could do that for him, too.

 

The following morning saw Elliot tiredly taking Flipper for a walk, while he went over his findings in his head. Louis the informer was their first target, one they dismissed easily when a more aggressive and demanding presence like Fred’s caught their eye, and yet it was probably one of the closest people to the elusive sysadmin at the core of the onion network he was poking at.

 _We’ll file this one under “oh the irony”._ When all was said and done, Fred did bring them to the chief, and at least Darlene didn’t have to endure that revolting little pig hitting on her any time soon. He would find the node that tied the informer to the admin soon. And once he did, he’d unmake all of them. He brought Flipper back home, said hi to Qwerty and then got back out. He was going to need Alina’s knowledge of that sleazebag’s habits, comings and goings, ideally have her fish some information out of Lisa, the one that had the closest contact with the two men basically using the pub as their late night hangout spot.

Elliot was well on his way to her house when, again, he found himself all but ambushed by Angela.

“Oh, watch out, sorry— Elliot!” maybe ambushed wasn’t the right term, but he rounded a corner, eyes downcast, and nearly walked into the back of her head.

 _Story of our life. Any moment we meet is never a good time to talk._ He wondered if the karmic lesson he thought about was that it was just not meant to be, that he could never do what normal people did, have conversations about the weather over frappucinos and meet up with girlfriends to “Netflix and chill”. There was definitely nothing “chill” about his life right now. “Um, hey, Angela.” He offered, hesitantly, “What are you doing here?”

She seemed puzzled by the question. “My ballet class is on this street.” Yep, he should have known that. It was the same ballet class Darlene went to, for crying out loud. “What are you doing here?”

He shrugged, trying to shake off the embarrassment of being caught not remembering a pretty big detail of his supposed best friend’s life. “Just… going to see a person.”

There was a slightly poignant pause, but Angela’s smile didn’t waver. “The girl from the other day?” she asked, in a sing-song conspiratorial tone that reminded him terribly of his sister, and he could swear she was channeling in somehow, because he felt like he was being teased.

“Yes. No. I mean, not like that.” Eyebrows rose well above baby blue eyes when Angela heard Elliot stutter like that. She had to admit, it was kind of cute. But then again, she always was fond of him, and sometimes wished things had been different between them, but Elliot was… complicated, to say the least, and she couldn’t deal with having to face something like that.

Old-fashioned as someone might accuse her to be, she wanted the whole package, flowers, dinner dates in cute little places, someone freely saying “I love you” just because they could… and she knew Elliot couldn’t be that for her. Would never be that, probably for anyone. Someone in a relationship with him would have to be someone who could accept silences, and contradictions, and conflict… it was much easier to just be his good friend –even though that didn’t stop the little pang of jealousy she felt when she saw someone else do with ease what she never could… but she was only human.

She repeated him the same words she told him the first time she saw a girl in his bed. “What do you mean not like that? It should be.” And maybe it was practice, but she was a little closer to meaning it this time. “How is it, then?”

He kept walking, since they did seem to be going in the same direction in the first place. “She’s just… helping me out with a thing.” He chose his words carefully, despite his current endeavours not having any ties with Evil Corp or anything related; it simply was a consequence of him building up his wall again, the one that kept his true nature secure from the eyes of the naïve ones he tried to protect.

“Hmm… and is this ‘thing’ business or pleasure?” she asked, seemingly intent on making him squirm a bit and succeeding, as she watched her friend stop at a certain door, “This the place?”

Elliot just nodded, and was about to say goodbye to her, when they both heard a crash from the other side of the door he was supposed to knock at. The two looked at each other for a moment, before Elliot all but lunged at the door and knocked loudly.

“Alina! Alina, are you in there?”

Angela watched on, worrying her lower lip with her teeth. On one side, this wasn’t any of her business; on the other, it was Elliot and someone he clearly cared about. When a muffled curse sounded from the inside and the girl with the red hair she saw last time at her friend’s apartment opened the door, she breathed a sigh of relief on Elliot’s behalf, but things still didn’t look ok.

“Hey!” the redhead greeted, visibly uneasy and with wet patches on the sleeves of her shirt, “Hey, hi Elliot. Um… this isn’t a really good time—”

A broken groan came from inside her apartment, rooting Elliot to the spot. It was a sound he knew too well: the sound of someone going through a rough withdrawal. “Is that… Lisa?”

Alina looked around warily, before answering. “Yes. She came over this morning after texting me about something important she was supposed to tell me…” she explained, barely above a whisper, “But then the nausea started and I think she’s going through withdrawal—”

Another desperate sound made itself known, making Alina turn back towards the inside of her apartment. “Look, it’s really not a good time, I gotta go; I can barely hold her down without hurting her.”

Elliot blocked her hand before she could close the door. “I can help.”

“You really don’t have to.”

“But I can. I know what withdrawal is like. Besides, you can use a pair of extra hands.”

They both nearly jumped out of their own skin when they heard Angela’s voice. “Why not two pairs, then?”

 _What the fuck? Why is she still here? How much did she hear? Shit, are we in trouble?_ Elliot could only hope Angela didn’t come to know too much, for her own sake.

Alina didn’t seem very thrilled by the idea of trusting a complete stranger, but after a couple seconds of silent pondering the worry over Lisa’s condition won over everything and she darted back inside, leaving the door open, wordlessly delegating to Elliot the decision to either chase the blonde away or let her in.

“Come. We’re going to need a damp towel for the sweats, one person always by her side for when she starts thrashing, and a bucket if she needs to throw up.”

The fact that he was so familiar with all this gave Angela the startling realization that Elliot might have been in the same position before, and had her wondering where the hell she was when he had. Some friend she turned out to be. But then again, Elliot always had been good at hiding.

Either way it wasn’t the time for asking questions, and she moved to what looked like the kitchen of the place, to find a rag and wet it under lukewarm water.

They rotated between tasks, Alina doing most of the muscle work, whenever they needed to calm Lisa’s tremors down or hoist her up to help her reach the bucket they had placed beside the bed, Elliot feeling her forehead for fever chills and help them understand what needed to be done and when; and Angela mostly taking care of the sweats, dabbing the refreshing rag on the stranger’s face, neck and torso with a care not everyone would be capable of.

 _Definitely still one of the good ones._ Elliot knew she would have a million questions after this, but he hoped that for the sake of their friendship she wouldn’t ask, and respect the distance he was trying to put between his reality and what had been wishful thinking for the most part.

They spent a couple more hours like that, when finally Lisa fell into a slumber that actually looked like it would get her some rest.

“The worst of it seems to be passed.” He said, rising from the bed to go and put the bucket back in the bathroom,

“Leave that, I’ll wash it later.” Alina protested, but was reluctant to leave Lisa’s side.

“She’ll be okay, promise.”

Angela watched the exchange silently. It didn’t seem like they were too comfortable with one another just yet, but there was a little something whenever they would make eye contact. It made her smile, despite the distressing circumstances. And then she immediately felt embarrassed at being caught staring when the redhead’s eyes found hers.

“Thank you, both of you…” she said, concentrating a bit more on Angela, “Hey don’t I know you from somewhere? I didn’t catch your name…”

They had barely seen each other for an instant, and Alina wasn’t paying too much attention, but it was only a few days prior so she did kind of remember her face. “Angela. We, um… brushed past each other at Elliot’s place.”

“Oh, right!” it took her a second to realise which particular moment was that, “Oh.” Well that was slightly embarrassing. Elliot certainly seemed to think so, considering his face looked like he had just drunk vinegar.

Admittedly, it wasn’t the most comfortable of situations, but Angela felt a little less perturbed by the closeness of her childhood friend with the “mysterious” redhead. Sure she had questionable acquaintances and seemed to have a questionable attitude herself, but anyone willing to have a friend sweating and puking their nightmares out on their bed couldn’t be that bad of a person.

“Well. You two obviously have things to talk about, and I’m still exhausted from ballet.” She said after a while, standing up and heading towards the door.

Alina nodded at her, and silently asked Elliot to be the one to show her out, while she kept watch on Lisa for a little more. She still offered her goodbye, sincerely grateful for her help. “Thank you again, Angela… really.”

The blonde nodded at her and let Elliot show her out, with a whispered “goodbye” and “take care”, and the hacker was left feeling a bit sadder still about Angela’s involvement with Evil Corp. Maybe not right now, but it was either going to corrupt her in the long run, or she’d end up like her mother. Elliot really didn’t know which was worse; but he knew that, for the sake of everyone involved, he would have to keep his distance from now on. After warning her about Ollie trying to play nice with her friends to get back in her graces –he made a mental note to himself to send her a text about that later on.

 

Lisa felt like shit. The last few hours had been hell on earth, she didn’t remember all of it and she couldn’t even tell what had been real and what not, but when she opened her eyes she saw her friend, and figured things were mostly alright.

Alina was smiling at her. “Hey, fighter.”

She attempted to smile back, even though it came out as a tired hum. “Don’t really feel like one right now.”

“But you are… the worst of it is gone, you know?” she was handed a clean t-shirt to put on, to get out of the covers if she wanted to, “It’s behind you now.”

It was then that the brunette registered the other presence in the apartment. Worry washed over her, and she turned to Alina, questions piling up on her mind before her friend shushed her.

“He’s alright, Liz. He helped us out.” Was the immediate reassurance. Alina didn’t seem to be able to decide right away whether carrying on was a good idea or not, but if what Lisa had to tell her was so urgent, there was always the risk that it’d be about Fred and if that was the case Elliot might as well be present to hear it directly. “Okay. Liz, this is Elliot, a friend. Elliot, this is Lisa.”

The hacker caught on immediately the unspoken “and pretend you don’t know her or I’ll kick your ass”, and complied.

Introductions were awkward at best, but it slowly eased down into a bearable conversation, right up to the crucial point:

“…anyway, Liz. What were you so adamant about telling me?” as Murphy’s law would have it, obviously the waitress had started feeling sick before she could tell Alina anything.

 _Murphy’s a dick._ This was important, and Elliot felt a bit guilty about having Alina basically interrogate her friend right after one of the most awful things one could experience, but they needed to know what was up.

Lisa breathed deeply and ran her hands through her face and hair. When she had finally recovered all the pieces of her mind she needed to recall all the events, she raised her eyes and spoke. “I heard Fred and Lou talking at the pub yesterday. I don’t know the specifics, but apparently someone messed up their operation, and Fred seems to think you’re involved.”

 _Shit. We need to hurry up._ And that wasn’t the worst of it, apparently, because the tale continued.

“Lou told him otherwise, he said that there was another girl… the one that was at the pub Tuesday night, remember?” _Shit, shit, shit._ “Didn’t know her name or anything, but it looked like they were hard pressed to find this girl, and figure out where you fit into the whole thing.”

 _They’re after my sister. They don’t know anything about her, but they’re trying to find her._ Luckily, no one would really be able to, barring some really dangerous minds like the guys at the Dark Army, but Elliot seriously doubted that these douchebags had genius hackers at their service… regardless, they needed to speed up and be extra careful.

Which was a bit of an oxymoron, but they could do this.

In the meantime, Lisa looked kind of accusatorily between the two of them. “Alina… what the fuck have you been doing, these days?” she finally asked, noticing the fading bruise on her friend’s cheek, not to mention the presence of that weirdo. Sure, he was a cute weirdo, but a weirdo nonetheless.

Alina sighed. “I… I’m just having a rough week, that’s all.” She said, not wanting to elaborate further, “Look, just… forget about it, okay? Trust me.” She felt like a bad friend for shutting her off like that, but the less Lisa knew, the safer she was. Especially since she was so close to being clean now. “Thank you for telling me this, but… stay out of it, okay?”

The disappointed look on Lisa’s face was too much for Alina to handle, and she lowered her eyes. Elliot could understand her. He too felt like an asshole every time he hid things from Angela, or Shayla, or even Gideon. But it was necessary –the irony of being the one to hack out the assholes and remove them from the innocents they target, after all, came at the price of being something viewed as unfavourable and toxic if he ever revealed his true colours.

 _She’s doing something similar right now. Betraying a friend’s trust, being dishonest with her to protect her, especially now that she is so fragile. It will still hurt her in the process… but it’s the lesser evil._ He could relate to that. He really could, and once again was surprised at how similar they actually were, below the visible, but… now they had things to do, more than ever.

He sent her a look that clearly meant they had to talk. He just hoped Alina was ready to do one more shitty thing for the day.

She seemed to understand what he wanted from her, as she responded with an expression that ranged from outraged, to pissed, to resigned. Sighing, she turned her expression back to Lisa. “Say… do you feel ok, now?”

Lisa too wasn’t particularly dumb and had noticed the two of them exchanging looks. “I can leave if you want—”

“Don’t be ridiculous, you have to rest! You can crash here.” The redhead stopped her sternly, before softening her tone again, “Just… there’s some stuff I need to go sort out, and, uh...” she hesitated, understandably, “Man, I feel like such a bitch… will you be okay on your own?”

If she had to be completely true to herself, Lisa did feel kind of betrayed, and was most definitely not ok. But something told her whatever her hot headed friend had gotten herself into was serious, and she’d just have to tough it out for the day. After a couple of seconds of decidedly uncomfortable silence, she nodded.

“If you need anything, there’s Dimitri next door.” Dimitri was a nice guy. He and Alina had bonded over their shared Russian heritage when she moved in, and she had wanted to set him up with Lisa in the past, before discovering that her neighbour’s tastes were towards more… masculine types. A shame, but still. Dimitri was always there whenever you needed a favour or any kind of help. “I’m going to tell him that you’re here and that you’re sick… he’ll check up on you every once in a while, and—”

“Alina! You’re rambling again.” Lisa interrupted her with a laugh. “Just take Robin Hood there and fucking go. I’ll be fine.”

The redhead exchanged a look with Elliot before turning back to her once more. “Are you sure?”

“For fuck’s sake, yes, I’m sure. I’m pissed, but I’ll be fine. Get your skinny ass out of here.”

“Okay.” Finally, Alina moved to grab her jacket and leave with Elliot, “I’ll make it up to you, promise.”

“You better!”

Alina still felt horrible for leaving her friend alone in the house like that, and she had Elliot wait for her while she asked to that Dimitri fellow to take care of Lisa, and make sure she was okay, and call her if anything happened; the silver lining in all of that being that Lisa had not only got over the worst of the withdrawal, but had also found it in herself to joke and banter with her… it couldn’t be that bad. Hopefully.

The real bad was what would be coming at them if they didn’t make a move now. And that was why she didn’t even need to ask Elliot whether they were going back to his place or not.

They could only hope it’d all be worth it in the end.

 

_~tbc_


	8. vi0l3nt.c0ntact

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pace starts to pick up when the pieces start moving in both directions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, 5800 something seems to be the par for the course now.  
> Holy crap this was long. At least something happens and we get to fuck shit up. XD  
> This was pretty hard to write, and I'm not really 100% satisfied with it, but try as I might I can't get it better than this, no matter how hard I ran the scene over in my mind. The last part is especially a bit... confused, I think, but all in all it puts things from the inside perspective, as who the hell wouldn't be confused and not seeing stuff clearly after all that?  
> So yeah, I'm just gonna leave it like that and call it a style choice, because really, I tried and tried, and deleted and rewrote, and this was the best that came out.  
> It was supposed to continue, but 5800 is the part where I tell my fingers to calm the fuck down and try to make room for the cut.  
> Hope it's not too sudden.  
> Everything still unbeta'ed, sorry for mistakes and stuff.  
> Enjoy~~ (I'm gonna go wash my hair and iron my work uniform for tomorrow like a good girl)

“So… do you know anything about Cowart’s contacts?” Elliot felt a bit exposed, doing this in the middle of the street in front of his house, but his poor dog was neglected enough as it was, and since for once he was home again he figured he’d multitask and take Flipper for another walk, while brainstorming with Alina.

She shifted her gaze around and actually looked a bit dejected. “Not much.” Was the obvious answer, “I know that he’s the one who made Lisa meet Fred, and that he knows a lot of the guys in town that hand out drugs.”

They avoided talking about how Cowart was also an asshole and a rapist –it had been just rumours for Alina, but Elliot’s findings confirmed it and had her more determined than ever to make the fucker disappear. Even though she essentially was a clueless nobody that never even knew how to properly take a drag out of a cigarette and was only good at kicking the shit out of anything.

The hacker saw the frustration in her eyes and tried to reassure her, for what it was worth: “It doesn’t matter. I have a program running to decrypt any password he might have and a spyware watching his traffic.” He explained, gently gesturing to Flipper to come back to him, “As soon as he contacts anyone operating the network, we’ll know, and will be able to start cracking for access points.”

She seemed to appreciate Elliot’s efforts in making her feel better, but was still more pensive than when this all started. It was easier to play the tough girl part when the threat wasn’t too real yet, but now people were after her, people who could actually reach her, and that woke Alina right up. It probably was for the best, overconfidence is a bad thing more often than not, but even so… they’d probably both feel a lot better once Darlene’s malware would hit the target.

Speaking of his sister, they were just about to head back inside when he saw her approach.

“Oh my god Elliot, is this your idea of a date? _Come back at my place and watch my dog take a shit_?” she openly teased him, probably because she had seen their worried expressions and wanted to lift the mood a bit.

And it did earn a small chuckle from Alina, even though her brother just rolled her eyes at her. “Let’s just get back inside.”

His sister’s little joke also made the little exchange from two days prior resurface in Elliot’s mind. He hadn’t said anything to Alina after he kissed her on her doorstep, and there hadn’t been a good moment to talk about it, conveniently. She also didn’t seem to want to bring it up just yet, but he couldn’t be sure if it was because of their more pressing concerns or for other reasons.

Then again, they did need to hurry the fuck up. “How’s the malware?” he asked Darlene, sitting back at his screen to check on his programs.

“Ready.” _Thank the fucking maker._ “Now we just need to find a terminal to infect.”

And that was exactly what Elliot’s program was looking for. He watched the screen closely, lines over lines of information updating every 6 seconds.

“Come on, come on, you got this…” he muttered to himself, not really thinking about whether his partners in crime would find it strange or not, “You got this, you got this, you got this…”

Darlene was used to her brother's quirks, and mostly unperturbed by them; Alina not so much. She watched him closely, a mix of weirded out and fascinated. Sure, a grown ass man talking to himself should be weird on all accounts, but there was also something captivating about how immersed Elliot became in his task, like the computer was a continuation of his hands and brain… she couldn’t hope to understand what exactly was going on through the screen, much less in Elliot’s mind, but she still glimpsed enough to be strangely awed by the scene.

The sheer intensity of Elliot’s entire temperament, despite his elusiveness, was probably one of the things that drew her to him so much.

“There!” the sudden raise in volume almost made her jump, as Elliot beckoned his sister towards the screen. “This email is from yesterday. Apparently their newest supplier just got into the network, and Lou was getting him into contact with the sysadmin to get burner phones and anonymous connection.”

Alina looked between the two of them. “And this is… good, right?”

“This is good.” Elliot repeated, “From this I get the supplier’s email too, and can backtrack the ip address he was sending from, and that is our way into the dealers’ network.”

Darlene patted her brother proudly on the back, turning to the redhead, “That won’t immediately give us administrator control over the entire thing, but the admin will come out once we infect their system with my malware, and when he does that… we’ll get him by the balls.”

Elliot sighed and nodded simultaneously, running his hands over his eyes. Finally some progress. And a way to protect themselves, too. As soon as Darlene’s malware got access into the entry terminal, he’d devise a countdown protocol that would send all the data and evidence he had gathered to the police and then self-destruct so that no one would be able to tell when it came from; unless it was reset every 12 hours. _That way if they try anything funny or get too close, I can play this card before they actually manage to get their hands on us._ It was just like last time and brought back bad flashbacks, but their target didn’t have any hostages yet. He could swing it this time.

“Okay I… didn’t get all of it, but I trust you guys.” The redhead finally said, getting up from where she was sitting on Elliot’s bed, “I should probably head to work before I’m too late, and after that I gotta check up on Lisa.”

Understandable. She’d have some explaining to do, or at least some apologising, after all that happened in the morning.

Darlene caught Alina looking at her brother with a curious mix of uncertainty and… craving? Maybe it wasn’t the right word, but whatever Elliot hadn’t told her yesterday seemed to have been real for the redhead too, if the way her eyes ran up and down brother dearest’s figure were any indication.

“We’ll, uh… we’ll drop by and tell you what’s the plan as soon as we have the exact location.” It was almost painful to watch though. Her brother was kinda hot and that was a fact, but he had so little self-esteem in anything that wasn’t his technical skills that seeing him shyly trying to speak to a girl was almost torture.

Still, they were making eye-contact, at least, that was progress.

“Okay, cool. I’ll let you geniuses work it out until there’s something for me to beat up, then.” Alina stretched her arms a bit and rubbed her cheek underneath the bruise –probably trying to resist the urge to scratch it, “I’ll see myself out, if you don’t need anything else…”

“Actually…” and that’s when it happened. Right before Alina opened the front door, Elliot got up from his chair and crossed the three steps that separated them. He grabbed her hand and tugged her slightly towards himself, stealing another kiss.

This one lasted a little longer than the previous one, and he had the chance to snake his other hand in her hair for a moment. “…for, um, luck.” Was all he offered as an explanation, once they parted.

God that was horribly corny. But Elliot didn’t regret it one bit: not only it felt really good to try and give into an impulse like that, he was also anticipating his sister’s reaction at that. It was just as well that they were about to remain alone, she was going to want to talk about this.

Alina was definitely taken aback by the hacker’s sudden boldness, if it could be called that –sure, they had been circling each other for days and had that little moment at her place, but neither of them seemed too intent on moving things forward just yet, and both assumed the other had their reasons… she shot a confused look at Darlene, senselessly hoping to find an explanation in her face, but was predictably met with an expression similar to her own.

Not that it had been unpleasant, quite the contrary, Elliot had that pair of full lips that were just begging to be bitten, and maybe had to get over some initial shyness, but, man… once he did, he could kiss you like it was nobody’s business.

Crap, she was staring again. She exhaled, instinctively licking her lips. “Yeah, well. Good luck.” She took half a step backwards before colliding with the half open door and realised it would probably be smarter to watch where she was going. Damn it, was one proper kiss all it took to completely turn her brain into mush? “See ya.” That was an ungraceful exit. She was sure her face was burning up, after closing the door behind herself… it was bullshit, no one had ever made her blush like that since high school. It was going to be a long shift at work.

 

Back inside the apartment, Darlene was looking at her brother in a mixture of awe, amusement, and utter shock. “Dude! What was that??” she asked, not quite smiling only because her mouth was agape, not unlike Qwerty’s.

It was enough to rip a little bit of laughter from Elliot’s mouth –he wasn’t much of a smiler, but Darlene’s closeness and whatever this thing with Alina was becoming were giving him reasons to do so slightly more often, which was probably a good thing. All things considered, he had been clean ever since his last purchase from Shayla had run out: and yet hadn’t had crying bouts anymore, not since he and Darlene started spending a bit more time together.

“I kissed her.” Back to the matter at hand, he shrugged, trying to play it casual, “It’s the second time already.”

“What? And you didn’t even tell your little sister?” she practically jumped up and down, “See? I was right, you do want to bone her. Now sit your ass down and tell me everything! And I mean everything, not that telegram bullshit you did last time~~”

 _Never change, Darlene._ Reaching out to family turned out to be an option, after all.

 

“I’m really sorry about leaving you alone today…” it was probably the tenth time the redhead said this, and frankly Lisa was getting sick of hearing it. Admittedly, it wasn’t very nice, but then again neither was showing up at her place to ride out the worst withdrawal crisis of her life.

“Stop it. I’m fine, okay? Dimitri and his boyfriend took good care of me”

That was good to hear, Alina supposed, but she still felt like a shitty friend. “Okay… and, uh, about what you heard… really just try to stay out of it, it’s better this way. And stay away from Fred, ok?”

Now that part Lisa was pissed about. If they were so close that she could crash at Alina’s apartment to detox, why couldn’t the other tell her about what trouble she was getting into? She sighed and shook her head, knowing asking more wasn’t going to get her anywhere. “Just… promise you’ll be careful.”

“I’ll try.” Was all Alina could offer, while watching her gather her stuff, “Are you sure you feel up to going home? Want me to walk you?”

The brunette stopped her before she could take the bag from her. “I’ll be alright. Besides, if you’re up to secret mischief I’d just be a bother, sitting in your apartment.” She regretted her snappy tone the minute the words left her mouth, but no one would be completely unruffled in her shoes, “And you need to get some fucking sleep. You look like shit.”

Truth to be told, Alina felt like it, too. She’d had an early start of the day with taking care of her friend –not that she regretted it, but it did take a toll on her – then a full afternoon of conspiring with her hacker partners, and finally a tedious evening shift, that was luckily uneventful and douchebag-free, for once. Weekends were fuller of “normal” clients, so sketchy jerks like Fred tended to stay away. The fact that she got away with just sore, tired limbs and slight bags under her eyes was already enough to call it a win. Relenting, she nodded. “Okay. But text me when you get home.”

“Will do, doll-face.”

Finally alone, the redhead all but dropped on her bed, breathing a sigh of relief at the beauty of lying down. She hadn’t even bothered to undress yet, and would probably fall asleep in her clothes in a few minutes, but thinking back on everything that happened, there was a moment that had kinda made it all worth it. She felt her lips curve into a smile under her fingers, and closed her eyes thinking of intense glacial gazes and crooked smiles.

 

Elliot spent a long night of hacking, sometimes trading places with Darlene so that both of them got a little bit of shut-eye, but in the end their work paid off and they managed to pin down the ip address they found to a tattoo parlour, of all things.

It became apparent that it was a cover-up the minute they traced back the owner history and saw that it didn’t match the actual people who seemed to work there, not to mention the supposed owner’s correspondence clearly was a code for drug replenishment. This guy was a little smarter than Vera; he avoided bragging about deals or kills on social media and simply referred to each different drunk as an ink colour, which wasn’t that suspicious considering his front…

Of course, the actual traffic, the patterns in the messages and the shipments, linked with date and times of various crimes provided Elliot all he needed to out this guy to the police too. But not just yet. They had to make sure Vera, his right-hand and all the people who had seen their faces would get no chance out of this.

And to do that they had to bring them all down together, from the inside.

 _We’ll start with the tattoo parlour. Once we infect the terminal there it will be a matter of minutes before I get the entire network in my hands… and once I get to the source, I’ll have the whereabouts of every little mouse._ Elliot rubbed his temples, breathing deeply. He could do this.

Darlene had just got out to go get Alina, and then they’d move to the place together. Since the chief wanted her dead, they’d switch places for the day, Darlene would give remote assistance from a hiding spot nearby and Elliot would go spread the malware, with Alina as backup.

He briefly wondered what society’s “normal” standard would say about him bringing the 5’2’’ girl as his bodyguard and not the opposite, but then he remembered that society could go fuck itself, for all he cared.

 

The streets were still alive with news of the great cybernetic incident that had basically blown up the markets and how they were recovering from it, supposed expert economists explaining different kinds of bullshit trying to scare people into not taking their freedom back… their plan had worked, it was happening, but until they found what would be the next step, the world’s reaction faded into background noise, while what they had in front of them became much more tangible.

“I don’t like this…” Darlene was more than slightly reluctant to slipping into her hiding place, dragging out the ‘I’ in her complaint, “I want to be the one who gets to smash stools into people!” actually she mostly wanted to avoid that her brother found himself into that kind of situation, but saying that would be just too syrupy for her style.

Elliot understood her worry, but then again they constantly had a tug-of-war of sorts to protect each other; this time it was his turn. “I know, but you’re the only one that can make sure the malware hits where it hurts.” He told her, handing her his laptop. “Just keep your head down, hack into the street cameras nearby and keep track of our spyware.”

In the end, Darlene could only nod, and the other two were off towards the entrance of the tattoo parlour, in the guise of a couple wanting to get the same tattoo.

The place didn’t look different than an ordinary tattoo studio, and had actually pretty solid hygienic standards, surprisingly. There was only one guy at the counter, behind a computer –their target.

“Hey.” Elliot called, not too confident about blatantly lying to someone’s face as he was when he was doing it remotely but intent on getting this over with, “Do you make custom tattoos?”

The guy behind the counter gave them a calculating look, probably pondering how much money he could spill out of them, or the chances that he could be a junkie.

_Yeah, sorry man, not anymore._

Finally, the guy spoke. “Sure. You got a drawing?”

This was almost too easy. He gestured to Alina, who took a flash drive out of the pocket of her jeans and handed it right to the guy. “We got it made by a friend… we’re gonna get it together.” She seemed to play her part well enough, considering the man behind the counter gave Elliot a look that seemed to ask if he seriously was so whipped that he was getting a couple tattoo. He just pretended to be the adoring boyfriend and rested his chin on Alina’s shoulder, circling her waist.

It was the closest they had ever been, and they were just pretending in front of a potentially dangerous criminal. Life was bizarre.

“I’m— I’m sorry, but nothing’s comin’ up.”

 _Not for you._ “What?” he asked, pretending to be surprised.

“It’s not reading it, like, at all… it just gives me this little pop-up that says I have to update the drivers.”

_Which is actually the malware asking you to relinquish control of the host._

“Again? Are you kidding me?” Alina sighed and leaned over the counter, faking her frustration, “Have you tried clicking ok? It should open…”

The guy hesitated a little, but in the end fell for it and clicked. “I tried, but nothing’s happening.”

 _Yes. We’re in._ He watched as Alina huffed and pretended to get angry. “Oh come on… this is bullshit!”

It was his turn now. “Babe, babe… hey. Let’s just go for now.” He said, taking her hand, “We can try to go print it and come back later, ok?”

The guy at the counter all but rolled his eyes at them, clearly fed up with the two weirdos that were making him lose all that time. “Yeah, you do that.” He urged them not too subtly to get the fuck out and didn’t even listen to whatever they were saying as they took back their stupid thing and left… he only looked up by reflex when the door jingled as they exited, just in time to get a good look at the redhead’s retreating back.

Outside, Elliot and Alina were breathing a sigh of relief, as they turned into the first alleyway they found to get out of sight. Everything seemed to be going according to plan, and now they only needed to wait for the admin to take the bait.

“That could have been so much worse.” The hacker should have known better than to say those exact words.

Alina’s phone rang –they said they didn’t do numbers, yeah, but this was an emergency and Darlene didn’t have any other way to warn them. She and Elliot already broke the rule once and it didn’t go too badly. Clearly getting the hint, Alina answered.

_«Guys, you’re being followed.»_

“What?”

_«Four people have left the shop right after you two did and they’re rounding up on you.»_

_Shit._ Elliot exchanged a look with Alina, and she extended the phone towards him. “Get away.”

_«Are you kidding? I’m not leaving you alone—»_

“We’ll be alright. You’re the one they want the most right now, get the fuck away.” He insisted, after a nod from the redhead, “Get back to my place. We’ll text you as soon as we get away.”

The call was closed just moments before they were cornered, and Elliot could only be thankful he had managed to get his sister out in advance, this time. There was the guy they had spoken to at the counter, two more relatively big guys, possibly Hispanic, judging by colours and features, and a dude not much bigger than Elliot himself, but that was carrying a steel pipe.

“So...” Tattoo guy started, stepping forward, “What exactly did you two fuckers do in there?”

 _This is not good._ “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He tried denying; maybe they could still get away with words, if he could just manipulate them.

“Nah, don’t play dumb, bro.” the two Hispanic guys circled them and stopped behind them, effectively trapping them in place, for now, “You see, at first I thought you two were just a couple of losers, but then I recognised her. So you either don’t know that your little girlie goes clubbing at night, or you’re in on it.”

Alina didn’t seem to recognise him, but then again there were so many people in the club that night, nevermind all the lights and smoke, it would have been impossible for her, while instead both she and Darlene clearly left quite the impression.

“I’m gonna ask ya again. What did you do?”

 _This is so not good. Shit._ He was still wracking his brain for something to tell them, anything to shift the attention, but he ran out of time when tattoo guy grew impatient.

“You know what? Fuck this shit. Mickey, go.”

Before Elliot could even register what was happening, he found himself kissing the asphalt, having just been hit in the face with a steel pipe. Everything was kind of hazy now, and he struggled to get up, while barely hearing Alina’s voice.

“Hey! Stop that you fucking cowards!”

Trying to focus his gaze, he hoped to high heaven that she didn’t provoke them further… or that at least her black belt was legit enough to beat all of these assholes at the same time.

“You shut up, bitch, or I’ll knock your teeth ou—”

Well, she certainly had the element of surprise, hitting tattoo guy in the mouth with the base of her palm, precisely hard enough to make him stumble backwards and knock out a tooth or two. The other three men were understandably stunned for a moment.

“What are you idiots waiting for? Bash her fucking head in!” the command didn’t sound too authoritative when his pronunciation was slightly distorted by his rapidly swelling mouth, but it spurred the men to gang up against Alina all the same.

The thing with fighting different attackers at the same time was that you had to make choices, usually sacrifice one blow to get one in; and what mattered the most was that you chose the way that allowed you to do the most damage possible before taking a hit.

Alina chose to go for the steel pipe guy first, considering it was the most dangerous weapon at the moment and needed to be removed from the equation. She grabbed the arm brandishing the pipe and twisted it, forcing her opponent to let go before moving into his space and kneeing him three times in the stomach in rapid succession.

It was enough to make the guy double over in a pain he wouldn’t recover too soon from; but it also gave a window to the two guys behind her. One of them managed to grab her by the hair and pulled back towards him, while the other moved to get in front to hit her as his friend held her still.

Forcing himself to stand back up, Elliot tried to get between Alina and the front attacker, trying to punch him in the face, but he wasn’t as strong nor as accurate as he could have been, not after a hit to the head with a freaking steel pipe, and the dude just blocked him and shoved him back down with a hit to the chest.

Luckily, that exchange gave Alina the time to concentrate on the guy holding her by the hair, and she simply rammed her heel as hard as she could between his legs. Blinded with obvious pain, the man let go instantly and she turned around and grabbed his wrist. Keeping his arm high, she moved so she was right under it and rammed her elbow in the guy’s armpit –a place that, when hit just right, sends a shock of pain so hard that even the biggest opponent will practically lose consciousness.

And it happened not a moment too soon. Alina was just in time to intercept the other Hispanic guy, who was about to kick Elliot while he was still down. She jumped to get the right angle and rammed her elbow in the crook of the man’s neck. The guy took the blow better than expected, turning to try and throw a punch at her, but her small stature, combined with a high guard, worked at her advantage and she mostly blocked the attack by keeping her forearms close to her face. In the end, Elliot’s help was crucial to ending the fight: retrieving the steel pipe from the ground, he tried and hit the guy behind the legs, forcing him to keel over. It was the opening Alina needed to raise her left leg and drop a kick in between the man’s shoulder blades, as hard as she could.

She couldn’t deny that the sound it made when her opponent practically face-planted on the asphalt was incredibly satisfying. And now that tattoo guy was alone, he wasn’t so brave anymore.

The redhead took the pipe from Elliot’s hands as he slowly got up, probably still dizzy, and took it upon herself to be the one to finish this. She saw tattoo guy try to grab something from his pockets, and was there in a flash to grab the offending wrist, just in case it was reaching for a gun.

“What the—”

 _That could have been really bad._ Elliot’s mind supplied, as he saw exactly a gun tumble to the floor, while Alina twisted the man’s wrist in a painful lever.

“Now listen to me, you fucker.” The woman said, not breaking eye-contact, “If you, or any of your buddies, come after us again, I’ll finish what I started, and you won’t get away with just a broken bone.”

She gave him just enough time to wonder what she was talking about, before twisting the rest of the way, until something in the man’s wrist snapped. For good measure, she also returned the message to the sender with the steel pipe, hitting him in the face just like his buddy hit Elliot.

The hacker was surprised and mildly creeped out by how brutal she had been, but he guessed the tough girl act worked out after all, and let her help him the rest of the way up.

“Let’s get out of here.” He barely heard her voice and felt dizzy, but couldn’t agree more.

A few eyebrows could rise when they found those assholes beaten black and blue, but they weren’t in a particularly good neighbourhood, and no one would investigate too deeply when it was just another street fight.

All things considered, he just hoped he didn’t have a concussion. He let Alina direct them through the subway and then streets, probably towards her apartment, vaguely aware of a phone call with Darlene where she assured his sister that they were alright and she was bringing him back to her place.

He wondered idly why go there and not join back up with Darlene, but then again his sister would worry herself sick if she knew he had taken a pipe to the face, so it was probably better this way.

“Sorry about that… but your forehead is bleeding a little and I don’t think you want Darlene to see you like this.” Case in point.

 _At least that’s done and over with. Darlene has my laptop, as soon as I can get back to my place we can infect the rest of the system and we’ll trap those dickheads._ In the meantime, he leaned bonelessly against Alina’s doorframe as she got the door open, and docilely let her guide him to her bed, where she sat him down to grab her first aid kit and take a look at his head.

“It doesn’t look too bad…” she said, cleaning the cut and the bruise around it, “But I don’t think it’s a good idea to give you painkillers or anything that could make you fall asleep.”

 _Oh, this is gonna suck._ It was understandable, really, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. He would like nothing more than to just sleep right now, he was hurting, tired and –after being knocked about on the asphalt – dirty.

 _Actually, now that I think about it…_ “I wouldn’t mind a shower.”

“No can do, big guy.” Alina shook her head at him, setting down the cotton balls and oxygen peroxide, “You’re too dizzy to even stand.”

Dying from slipping in the shower after all the risks they took would actually be pretty embarrassing, Elliot’s mind conceded. But god, he felt fucking terrible.

Something in his face had to have shown his discomfort, because the redhead sighed deeply, resting her hands on her hips for a second, before leaning towards him again and start taking off his clothes. “Fine. Come on.”

 _Wait, what?_ The hit he took to the head seemed to really have slowed down his thought process, because he registered a split-second late that, logically, the only way he would be allowed in a shower in his current condition was if there was someone to help him.

There were probably a million stupid clichés about this entire situation, but Elliot surprisingly didn’t find any of it particularly romantic or embarrassing… it probably had something to do with the searing pain in his forehead taking over most of his senses at the moment, but he did appreciate the way Alina was looking out for him, and there was maybe a little bit of awkwardness as she got him completely naked and into her shower.

As soon as the water hit him, though, everything else sort of got more distant. He shivered a bit –Alina had turned it on barely lukewarm, so the heat wouldn’t make him even dizzier – but with the redhead’s help his limbs were relaxing from the tension of the fight and he did feel a little better.

To try and avoid making it too uncomfortable, Alina herself hadn’t undressed all the way and had gotten into the shower with him in her underwear and thin tank top, but it was still pretty weird to her. That wasn’t exactly what she meant when she wondered about getting Elliot naked, damn it. She helped him wash up as best she could, essentially just watching out for whenever he seemed to not be able to stand on his own and keeping him up by the arms or the shoulders. Well, that and massaging his scalp from time to time, whenever she could trust him to stand on his own enough to get one of her hands free… it would help out with the pain and, well, she had been wanting to do that for a bit and figured it was as good as a time to try as any.

Okay, maybe the clichés were right, this was weirdly intimate. Or maybe the daze from the hit was subsiding and Elliot was growing more and more aware of their situation and close proximity.

“I, uh… I think I’m good.” He mumbled, placing a hand on her shoulder, both for support and to let her physically know he wanted out.

Alina nodded, not looking directly at him but swinging his arm around her shoulders all the same. “Okay, great.” She said, voice broken by a slight nervousness he couldn’t quite place, “I’ll get you back to bed and bring you some towels.”

Truth was, Alina was freaking out for multiple reasons. One for all being the fight that had just taken place. She shoved all her emotions and reactions deep down for the sake of taking care of Elliot, but holy crap that was scary. It was a miracle they hadn’t got shot or stabbed, and her mind was still reeling from the moment she broke the guy’s wrist. She didn’t mean to go that far, but something raw came over her, and for a second she couldn’t stop. Pure fight or flight, one could say –the startling realization that they could have died had she been a second slower made her snap, just like the other time something like that happened a few years ago.

Elliot was too tired and dizzy to see it, but her hands were trembling. She needed to calm down and breathe… she repeated into her head that it was going to be alright, and she helped the hacker dry off and get some of his clothes back on, before setting him down on the bed again.

“Tell you what; you lay down for a bit.” She told him, putting a glass of cold water on the nightstand behind him.

“I’m fine.” He was starting to get his presence of mind back, and as it all came to him he fixed a worried stare towards Alina, wondering whether she was all right or not.

She just smiled at him, trying very hard not to give into the puppy eyes he didn’t even know he was making. “Try not to fall asleep, I’ll be right back.”

After all, she was drenched and in her underwear already, might as well take a quick shower herself and then go back to watch over Elliot.

It was such bullshit that someone always got hurt during these fights, but at least they were moderately okay, and the least Alina could do was tend to his wound and offering him a place to crash, just like he did for her. She smiled at Elliot’s figure, before heading back to the bathroom.

At least they were one step closer to their goal… in the meantime, she had a half-naked hacker curled up in her bed to take care of, and that wasn't so bad.

 

_~tbc_


	9. maz3s.4nd.bug5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little time is spent tending to wounds, recovering energy, and exploring mazes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this will kind of be a decisive point.  
> This chapter has been sitting on my pc for like three days already and it doesn't look like it's gonna get any better... I hope it doesn't disappoint too much, but for the sake of moving the story forward I'll just post it and be done with it.  
> It looked like the only logical segue at the time and it just came down on autopilot (like most of my writing goes... I'm fucking terrible XD ) -but I promise, from next chapter on shit will happen and we'll get back to both hacking and ass-kicking.  
> Also more Darlene will come back, because Darlene is fucking awesome.
> 
> ....okbye *nervous author is nervous*

They could have died. That guy had a gun in his pocket and they would have been shot had she had slower reflexes.

Alina took no longer than five minutes to quickly wash herself and get into a bathrobe; but despite her best efforts she still hadn’t gotten over that. The fight she’d been into together with Darlene had been bad, and yet only when firearms entered the picture shit became apparently very real. It was funny how the human mind was slow like that. She let out a shaky breath, trying to focus on the top priority for the evening: when she stepped back into the bedroom Elliot was already drifting off a little. She was immediately to his side, feeling a bit bad for negating him some rest but knowing it was better to wait at least a little more, just to make sure he wasn’t concussed or in any danger.

“Hey… way to make me feel bad about myself! Here I am in just a bathrobe, and you’re falling asleep?” obviously she was just joking, it was something ridiculous to say just so that the hacker would snap his attention back to her.

“I’m not…” he muttered tiredly, his denial betrayed both by his tone the way he burrowed the good side of his face into she pillow. Alina really was developing a soft spot for those eyes, and she had to bite her lower lip not to smile too widely.

“Sure you weren’t.” she threw back, sitting on the edge of the bed, “Come on, talk to me a bit. Are you feeling any better?”

Elliot nodded slightly. He knew what she was doing, distracting him and keeping him to see whether the head injury was severe or not. He could also see that she was definitely not as okay as she tried so hard to look, if the way her chest rose and fell with every breath was any indication. A little distraction would probably be good for the both of them.

 _Also you need to stop playing tough and let the stress out, or your neck is gonna snap under the pressure._ He sat up slightly on the bed, leaning his shoulders against the headrest. “I am, I feel much better.” _My head still feels like it went through a meat grinder, but I’ll live._ “How are _you_ feeling?”

The redhead raised an eyebrow at him. “I’m not the one who ate metal.”

“No, you’re the one who jumped in front of a gun for a semi-stranger.” _Nice try, though._

If he had to be completely honest with himself, Elliot didn’t understand how or why she was still trying to pretend the whole thing didn’t faze her, it was stupid… “Why did you even do that?”

Alina was biting her lips and didn’t seem to be able to focus her gaze anywhere near Elliot’s face. “Oh come on…” she protest, lowering her head to hide behind her curls, “It’s not like my ass wasn’t on the line…” technically true, but still not enough to take on an entire street fight on her own instead of just leaving him there and fleeing to safety, “Besides… you’re not a stranger.”

That one was new. “I’m not? You don’t know anything about me.” And completely bonkers, in the hacker’s humble opinion. Of course, the not so subtle flirting that had been going on between them was a thing, but they had known each other for barely a week –and even though Elliot hacked her, they never really had the occasion to “get to know” each other.

“That’s debatable.” Was all Alina said at first, brushing her hair back and finally making eye-contact, “Maybe I don’t know anything about your past, or your life, or your friends… but I do know things about you, things I saw with my own eyes.”

Elliot would be a liar if he said he wasn’t curious as to where that was going. He fixated his stare on the redhead’s face, and she did the same while she went on.

“I’ve seen that you’re a protective person, that you’ll risk your own life rather than putting your sister in any kind of danger…” she started, counting on her fingers for show, “I’ve seen that you’re curious, so much so that you have a constant craving to know everything, and that it drives you nuts when you can’t find out what you want. I’ve seen that you’re brave, since you didn’t think twice about trying to talk down at a person holding a steel pipe to your face…” the focus of her look shifted from Elliot’s eyes to his lips, “I’ve seen that you don’t let everyone close, that you have a set of boundaries to protect yourself, but that if you do, it can be… exhilarating.”

She was right. His obsession from hacking people did stem from the desire to know hindered by the inability to engage people the normal way. He wasn’t so sure about her calling him protective and brave, but to each their own. Either way her speech got him thinking… he knew everything that happened in her life and everything she shared; but did he know her at all? Shayla had been right when she told him that he didn’t truly know her just because he hacked her, some people were more multi-faceted than that.

 _Well, I know she’s a whole lot braver than I am, considering she throws herself into fights without a second thought even when it’s one to four, not to mention being actually able to talk to people; I know that her way of keeping everyone at a distance is letting them believe they are all already close; I know she’s too stubborn to let her weaknesses show because pretending to have none is how she deals with them._ And less than half of those things he had learnt while hacking her, as opposed to actually being in the same place as her. He shook his head and let a slight smirk stretch the corners of his lips. “Well, I know you’re not as okay as you say you are.” The look on her face was almost precious, like a kid with scabbed knees trying hard not to cry. “You don’t have to hold back on my account, come on.”

They kept locking eyes for some more seconds, until Alina finally dropped her gaze again and let out a shaky breath. “Holy crap we almost died today.” She let the sentence out as barely more than a sigh, but the tension seemed to lift from her shoulders as a small shiver shook her arms.

 _See? That wasn’t so bad._ He would have asked her more questions, but he was just so damn sleepy. His eyes were probably visibly drooping, because the redhead’s look softened and she got up from the bed. “Well, I guess you’re lucid enough so you’re probably not concussed.” She declared, moving to gather all the clothes that had been dropped carelessly around the room in the middle of emergency care, “Get some real rest, I’m going to put all these in the washer and text Darlene again, okay?”

Elliot knew he probably should have said something like “that’s not necessary” or at least should have made some sort of polite protest, but the entire day had taken its toll on him and he was running on very few hours of sleep; so he just nodded and slumped back on the pillows, turning to his side and curling up in himself a bit –it was a matter of seconds before he closed his eyes and drifted off into a light sleep, Alina’s retreating back as the last image in his head.

 

Somewhere else, in a room that definitely didn’t belong in a tattoo parlour, things were much less quiet. “What the hell happened?”

“I don’t know, chief, they put a— a virus, or some shit in the laptop, and then beat the fuck out of my men!”

Akers was on the verge of murdering the second idiot of the week. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “How? How in the fuck did it happen?”

The supposed tattoo artist didn’t have a valid enough explanation apparently, and this stirred laughter from the other dealer in the room. “Bro, you gotta step up your game… when I was on my own if someone tried to get one up on me, they’d wake up with a fucking bullet in their head.”

“Shut up Vera, you’re one to fucking talk.” It was a bad enough blow to his rep that he was personally beaten up in his own territory, but now someone was deliberately getting into fights with his men. He wasn’t in the mood to take shit from the likes of Fernando Vera… the dumbass had his whole business on social media, and then had the gall to be surprised when an anonymous tip turned him in. No, someone was clearly out to get them, even though he hadn’t figured out their endgame yet.

“I don’t know… this crazy bitch and her weird-ass boyfriend!” the tattoo artist replied, pitch almost rising to a whine, “They said they wanted a drawing, but I think it was just a ruse to get some shit into my computer!”

“I don’t pay you to think, you moron! You—” Akers definitely was going to shoot someone if the situation didn’t get back under control, but restrained himself for the sake of getting shit done. He wanted the two bitches and this other bastard dead. “Wait, you’re saying the whole thing was just so they could hack you?”

“That’s what it looked like… I mean, that shit has all the info on the stuff we deal, right?”

It did, their tech guy gave them all burner phone cards and connected them to this onion thing so that they had an anonymous way to get in touch… but those assholes couldn’t have known… could they? Damn it; were they under attack from hacker activists or bullshit like that? This was going to take a while. He balled his fists. “Have Jarret fix whatever is wrong with the line. And tell the informers to speed the fuck up!”

The worst part of it all was that Vera actually looked pensive, and was staring at him now. “What?”

There was a crooked smile on Fernando’s mouth. “Y’know… last time I met one of those hacker nerds I ended up in the slammer.” Yes, everyone in the gang knew how stupid his bitch-ass brother had been trying to go ‘viral’, and how Vera killed him after he got out, “Course, as soon as I found out who the cocksucker was, I forced him to bust me out and killed his girlfriend.” He told, all the while grinning, like he was reminiscing a fucking Sunday stroll, “Listen to a man who’s been there, chief: you just gotta separate them. Once you do, threaten to kill whichever one, and you got the others by the nuts. Then just fucking off them all and be done.”

It was actually solid advice, which was surprising for Akers, considering the very low esteem he held in the person it came from –he had welcomed Vera in his crew because the man, despite being a shithead for the most part, was good at finding wares no one else could get, and was also ruthless enough to not care about who he had to kill, be it even his own brother, and that was always a good feat to have in a gang. Still, it remained the fact that they had yet to find the bastards.

“You. You too, go and find out all you can.” He ordered, narrowing his eyes at the lack of respect in Vera’s body language, “And consider your ass on the line. If it’s the same nerd whose girl you killed, and he’s trying to screw us over to get revenge, it’s your fucking fault.”

Fernando thought about it. It was a possibility, but he had put the fear of God into that dipshit, hadn’t he? He was too much of a pussy to get into fights anyway. “I ain’t never seen no kung-fu chicks, though.” He shrugged, not really believing it could be the same jackass that bent like a twig as soon as he threatened to hurt Shayla.

“Fucking still.” Akers was done with the both of them. He pointed at Vera and the tattoo artist, “If those bastards do bust our network, I’ll personally blow both your useless heads off. You have been warned.”

He swore to himself he’d crush those goddamn whores, if it was the last thing he ever did.

 

Elliot woke up with a slight jolt. At first, he was confused to be in a not completely familiar place and with a dull ache in his head, but then the events of the previous hours came back to him and he settled down, looking for signs of Alina’s presence.

“Slept well?” as it turned out, he didn’t have to look too far. The redhead was once again sitting at the edge of the bed, dressed only in the baggy beige flannel she apparently wore to bed.

He blinked, trying to make sense of the scene. “How long was I out?”

“Couple hours, I guess?” She replied, tucking her hair behind her ear –not that it stayed put for long, much to her annoyance and his silent amusement. “Your stuff is in the dryer, should be ready in a bit.” Well, at least she seemed more calm than when they left off. Then Elliot noticed dark red lines poking out from her sleeve and running on the back of Alina’s hands and had to blink again.

“What— what’s that?” he asked, pointing at the drawings he had mistaken for cuts for a second.

The redhead seemed hesitant to show him, and wringed her fingers together, almost sheepishly. “It’s nothing…” it clearly wasn’t nothing, it was something she was extremely guarded about and that she was visibly wondering whether she should reveal or not. “It’s just— henna paint, okay? It’s a dumb thing I do when I need to calm myself down.”

Curiosity once again made its way through Elliot’s brain, and he sat up, trying to get a closer look. “What?”

Making herself even smaller in her flannel, Alina all but hugged herself. “I picked it up as a hobby some three years ago, after…” _After she was nearly raped and murdered, and had basically the worst experience of her life._ “Everyone said trying out something new would have helped take my mind off things… and it did. Stupid as it seems, focusing on myself helped a lot not to think about what others did to me.”

 _Shit._ That was it. Her bug. The reason why she was able to look so open and confident, the reason why she didn’t hide. Just like him, she always looked for –and expected – the worst in people, after being disappointed so much in her life from family, boyfriends and strangers alike. She simply was so burnt that she assumed for certain that whoever tried to get close either wanted to hurt her, or get something for selfish purposes out of her, be it sex or friendship. But unlike him, who shielded himself from any contact; she simply let it all happen, offering an open, but sturdy and shallow flank… kind of like a tree that anyone could scrape bark off of, but no one could ever hope to cut through.

The reason why she was able to let everyone touch, was that she braced herself for hostile touch every time, expecting it from anyone except herself… and henna paint was her escape, the way to exorcise fear, pain and disappointment; the physical manifestation of her longing for the chance to experience a touch she could trust, to not need such a hardened skin. _The centre of her maze._

“Can I… can I see?” his lips moved before his brain even finished to formulate the thought.

Alina hesitated for a moment, regarding him with veiled doubt in her eyes. She was biting her lips again, and seemed to ponder the question for a while, before she finally unravelled her arms and lifted her right sleeve, holding out her arm for Elliot to see. “Sure, it’s dry enough. Just don’t laugh, okay? Or I’ll kick your ass.”

There were swirls, leaves and tiny little dots, all forming intricate patterns surrounding and enveloping her like embroidery… shaping what was just skin into something more, into a canvas that no one else would get to see, no matter how much they touched.

_It’s beautiful._

“Shut up.” The slightly embarrassed chuckle from the redhead, along with her comment, gave Elliot the realization that he had said that out loud; and he became hyperaware of the contact between their fingers, from when he took the outstretched arm into his hands to turn it this way and that. Despite that, though, he didn’t care as much as he would have in other situations. In fact, he was barely able to tear his eyes off Alina’s painted skin long enough to look for her eyes. “You know… you’re the first person to see this.”

 _I do know, there’s nothing like this in any pictures of her on social media. She probably always painted in a way that would easily be covered by clothing… it became her armor._ But if that was the case, the fact that she agreed to show him, or that she even did this at all while he was still in her bedroom, meant that she was inviting him into her secret… trusting him to touch without hurting her or using her.

And she deserved that –she deserved that and so much more, for the way she was looking out for him and Darlene without asking anything in return. Elliot wanted to do that for her, too.

Under such an intense scrutiny, Alina started to fidget –a sight to behold, the Muay Thai tough girl stereotype getting all insecure, and looking at him with embarrassed eyes. “Well? Say someth—”

Once again, Elliot decided to act on impulse, and simply tugged on the hand he was holding, to make her fall on top of him and kiss her again. Something in the back of his mind figured she’d simply punch him in the face if she didn’t want him to do that.

But he found himself preparing for an impact that never came. Alina’s free hand simply got a hold of his shoulder, to brace herself and avoid completely falling over; other than that, she reciprocated the kiss with just as much vigor, even trapping his lower lip between her teeth and biting slightly.

It was just as well that he was already almost naked and in her bed, especially since he felt her weight shift and straddle him over the covers. Elliot had been right about one thing: being completely lucid and aware made a big difference, and he felt anticipation bottle up in his chest –the sensation of Alina’s hands sneaking behind his neck, and her mouth meeting his over and over, as well as the warmth of her thighs over his crotch, was almost overwhelming.

“What are we even doing?” he whispered between kisses, physically contradicting his own words as one hand waved through red curls and the other fiddled with the flannel’s buttons. He felt her breath a soft laughter over his lips.

“Want me to draw you a picture?” really, only this girl could keep joking even at a time like this –and yet it only served to spur him on further, and he had to bite his lip to hold onto what little control he had left on the part of his mind laced with paranoia.

He stopped undressing her, but kept his hand splayed over her chest, just inside the hem of the shirt. “I mean, are you sure this is a good idea?”

Alina seemed to understand the question, and rested her forehead against his. “I think we’re past having to ask ourselves that.” Her voice was doing a pretty good job at getting him to just give in, as were her hands, caressing their way down its torso and aiming below the sheets, “Simpler question.” She continued, whispering against his jawline, “Do you want this?”

“Yes.” _Fuck, was that my voice? I didn’t even finish thinking it._ And yet he bent his head to give the redhead complete access to his neck as he practically gasped out his reply. He did want this. Had for a while now.

“Great.” She breathed, lifting herself on her knees just enough to make short work of the sheets separating them, “Me too. Fuck, I want this so bad.”

That was it. Grabbing her at the hip, Elliot pulled her down and turned them over so that he was on top of her, just tugging apart the damn flannel and not caring if any buttons went flying. If her satisfied chuckle was anything to go by, the redhead approved.

They stood still for some more seconds, just observing each other as if they were doing so for the very first time. Elliot let his eyes roam over her form, down to the scars she had on her inner thigh and hipbones from the night she was almost stabbed to death; and then back up to every small detail, like the freckles on her chest and shoulders, and holy crap conventional beauty standards were bullshit.

Alina got a good look at him as well, and she was just as immersed in this game of ‘I spy’ as he was. She mostly took in all the features of his face, from the outline of his eyes to the angles of his jaws, and instead languidly explored the rest of him with her hands, slowly dragging a hand back up his chest and stopping it right over his heartbeat. It was a weird feeling for Elliot, to be looked at like he actually was that breath-taking… but she seemed to think he was.

 _Is this happening? This is really happening, isn’t it?_ Being self-aware meant that, in the hacker’s case, you start doubting yourself over and over. A corner of his mind still wondered if it was too soon to be so intimate, but they had just got done almost dying together hours prior… you couldn’t go much closer than that. Also the consciousness of how easily one or both of them could have been dead in a street corner weighed heavily in favour of the “stop worrying, just let go” argument.

“So… is this happening, or what?” in the end, it was Alina’s teasing invitation to erase all doubt, not so much her words as the warm touch of her leg, curling up behind him and urging him closer to herself. It was with that gesture that he just grabbed her by the shoulders and gave into all his instincts.

The second he got into her was almost white light behind his eyelids –he felt her hands clench on his shoulders and he would probably have scratches to prove it later on, but he didn’t care. For a while, there was nothing but them, that moment together, tasting each other’s breath; no bullshit delusions or demons from the past, just the supple body he was pounding into and the hands grasping his shoulder blades and stroking his face. Alina arched and shook under him, sometimes throwing her head back and biting her lips to hold in her gasps whenever he pushed particularly hard, but she always brought her eyes back to his, never breaking contact too long.

It was enthralling –almost as if they were both trying to convince themselves it was actually real, and feared it would disappear if they looked away for more than a few seconds. Elliot could feel her growing close to her edge when she pulled him towards her by the biceps to get his lips between her teeth again –he should have figured she was a biter – and could feel himself getting close as well, muscles in his thighs contracting with the effort of keeping the last shards of a control long lost. He kept going some more, tightening his hold on her, all lean muscle and velvety skin, despite how agonizing the build-up was, and snaked one of Alina’s painted hands away from his shoulder, to grasp it into his, fingers entwined.

“Look at me.” He whispered to her breathlessly, barely holding on. _This is real. She’s real. We’re real._

But those were the last coherent thoughts in his mind, as he came undone under her gaze and goddamn was that a sight to behold. She was practically electrified by the beauty that was watching the man who never lost control give it up so totally; and it wasn’t long before she lost it all as well.

They stayed like that for a couple of seconds, not really doing anything other than riding out their orgasm, and Alina resumed stroking his cheek after a little while.

“…Hiya cowboy.” She murmured, voice light and almost teasing.

Elliot imperceptibly shook his head at her, noses brushing. “Hey.”

They held that looks for a moment, each daring the other to speak first, but in the end it was the redhead who did. “Crap…” she commented, “We’re gonna have to shower again.”

Of all the things she could have said, of all the feelings and sensation that were running unspoken between them… of course she’d choose to vocalize the stupidest thing. The sheer absurdity of it had them both laughing.

As far as sex went, Elliot had never thought it could actually be fun in the simplest sense of the word, but that was what was happening, and he was still looking at how Alina tried to hold in giggles and failed even during their second shower together, not quite laughing himself but amusement evident in his eyes.

Since her flannel didn’t have half of the buttons anymore, the redhead just stole Elliot’s t-shirt on account of him being responsible, and he simply decided not to care.

“Let’s get some actual rest.” It was probably high time they did that, considering they had a full day and would have an even fuller one ahead of them, if Darlene’s worm did its job.

“Yeah.” He nodded at her words, still thinking back to their linked hands, to how easily she catered to his need to know that it was all real, to be firmly rooted in the reality of their embrace. _Brutal, undemanding acceptance._ Abandonment and trust.

He simply laid back on the sheets with her, the two of them not quite holding each other, but still close enough for Elliot to feel Alina’s long curls brush his shoulder –it was oddly comforting, to have the liberty to not touch but still the chance to do so, if he happened to want to.

 _And all this will still be there when I wake up._ With that one thought, he slept the easiest he ever had in months.

 

_~tbc_


	10. p3ril0us

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things start going downhill as the players near the heat of the game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap this took way too long.  
> Keywords and phrases had been sitting on my pc for about a week but I couldn't seem to bring it to a flowing body (also work has been crazy). I'm guessing this is as good as it gets, so yeah. As usual.  
> This feels like kind of the opposite of what's been going on so far, action without as much insight -but it kinda works for me, and hey, I'll take it.  
> I'm super sorry about the ending on a cliffhanger of sorts, I'll have two straight days off in the middle of next week so it'll probably be around that time that I'm able to write something again.  
> Other than that, next week is going to be crazy for me so... please be patient.  
> And again, I'm sorry about everything. XD  
> Damn, this is running away from me, it wasn't supposed to be this long. XD

It was distressing at first, to open his eyes to an empty bed and a silent room. Elliot almost panicked again for a second. _Fuck, was that a delusion, did she never exist? No way, last night happened._ He could feel the scratch marks on his back and there was no way he could have done that to himself. But there was also no way Alina would leave him asleep in her bed without so much as telling him where she was off to. _Not when we almost died yesterday… right?_

He brought his hands to his face, blinking and looking around for clues. Last night had been real, he was sure. But he was also sure he wouldn't have been alone when he woke up... so why was he alone? After a few seconds of confusion, a bright green post-it note caught his attention:

_When you wake up again, remember you have to go see Darlene at your place as soon as you can._

_I’ll join you guys after my shift._

 

The message sounded strange at first, but then everything came back to him. _Oh… right. I’ve already woken up once._ It was more of a drifting in and out of sleep, but he did remember now.

He remembered Alina’s painted hands coming into view as she caressed his temple to stir him awake gently, he remembered her hair brushing on his chest as she leaned towards him and whispered something to him.

“Hey.” She had called, “Hey, wake up you. I have to go to work now, but I get off at one today so we’ll have the entire day to scheme some more.”

It was still a bit hazy, but the hacked did remember nodding tiredly and maybe humming a vague “Okay.” He also definitely remembered her laughing at him a little. It had been real.

“But go see Darlene at your place as soon as you get up, she said the malware did its job and you can start taking apart the network.”

After that she was out with a barely-there kiss on his forehead; but it was the memory of what she said that had Elliot almost shooting out of the bed.

 _It’s ready. We’re ready. We can do this, erase these assholes from the face of Earth and be done with them._ It was the most proactive he had been ever since pulling off the Steel Mountain attack. And he really couldn’t remember the last time he cried his eyes out, huddled in a corner in his apartment, pondering the apparent meaninglessness of human existence in an infinite universe.

All of this was crazy, dangerous and rotated around tragedy… but it was doing him good. He didn’t feel so alone anymore –it was terrifying, the chance to rely on other people with still the risk they could just vanish one day, but it was also exhilarating. He found himself smiling at the memory of the little exchange they had while he was still drowsy with sleep. Elliot took a few deep breaths, finally getting out of the bedroom to get his clothes back and maybe steal some coffee if Alina left some around for him; before having to go to his apartment and explain to Darlene what exactly he had been doing while she was working her ass off.

_Because she’ll be able to tell, of course she will._

 

“Finally, oh my God.” The tight hold around his shoulders told him that Alina probably did disclose something about the fight to his sister. “You’re lucky Alina’s cool and let me know your sorry ass was taken care of, or I’d be kicking it right now!”

He hugged her back slowly, breathing in her scent. She smelled like strawberry frozen yogurt –a smell he had come to associate with sisterly teasing and worry. “I’m sorry.” He muttered into her hair, “I’m good now. Where are we at?”

Darlene rolled her eyes at him, but she still smiled. Of course Elliot would want to go right back to work. She broke the hold, smoothing down her baggy t-shirt and moving over to let him sit at his computer.

“It’s looking good, the malware has infected most of the network and I’ve been using your decrypting programs to get administrator access to all the nodes.” As soon as he was sat in front of his screen he got half a step ahead of his sister’s report, but nodded along to her words anyway.

 _This can work. If their sysadmin had noticed he would have tried to quarantine the malware already, but so far it’s going down undetected._ He clicked away at his keyboard, prompting hidden commands to open the directory with all the terminal i.p. addresses linking the dealers together; from there he would have access to monetary transactions, shipments, replenishments, everything. Not to mention all communications, orders and executions carried out on chief’s behalf and, by association, on Vera’s.

Then it happened. _Shit, something is fighting back._ Someone on the other side was running a scan to try and detect threats. _Darlene’s malware should hold and stay unnoticed, but I have to kick them out of the network, if they stay in too long they could get to my ip and that must not happen._ He started a counter script right away, but he’d probably just wipe everything again once they were done with this, just to be safe.

 _Come on, come on, come on…_ he breathed a sigh of relief when he finally kicked out the scanner, letting his head fall backwards for a moment. _They’re getting serious. I have to round up all the i.p. addresses, track their location and gather all the proof I need to break these guys to the police._

Once that was ready, he had to confront them and let them know what hit them, to set a precedent and have people remember not to mess with the guy who could erase their money and their lives.

“Hell yeah, that’s my bro!” Darlene was just about to attempt high-fiving him when the door opened, revealing a tired but otherwise not worse for the wear redhead.

Elliot just turned his gaze towards her and his lips barely twitched into a small smile, but apparently Alina’s hesitant “Hey” and her body language were enough for Darlene… probably along with the fact that he hadn’t said a word about anything regarding her during the entire morning.

“Well!” she said, shooting up and grabbing Alina’s wrist, “Since you’re here, I can have some company while walking Flipper, so she doesn’t shit all over the floor since Elliot’s buried in the pc right now.”

“What?” Alina didn’t seem to even fully register that, and they were out of the door before Elliot could even tell her he could just go himself if she didn’t want to.

Darlene could admit it to herself, Flipper was an excuse. But it was just as well, now she could talk to the redhead while the little dog took her sweet time doing her business. It wasn’t that she didn’t want her to be near Elliot, but after all the shit her brother had been through… she at least wanted to make sure he wouldn’t get hurt.

Shayla was probably a great gal, before she died; but clueless. Darlene never knew her much, but had figured that bit from how she threw herself face first into the drug dealing business without any ways to protect herself. Despite being really sweet and seemingly really caring about her brother, Shayla got into troubles she never thought a way out of. This girl seemed to be a bit more level-headed… at least Alina could kick people’s asses if they got too into her business and knew her limits enough to admit she needed help to do things she knew nothing about; but still…

Stupid as it sounded, Darlene wanted to know if she was willing to put up with the shit-storm that being with a guy like Elliot would be.

“So… you’re banging my brother, huh?”

The question was sudden, but not unexpected. Alina startled a bit at the bluntness it was presented with, but she still found it in herself to just laugh a little about it. “Is it that obvious?” she asked back.

“Well, you were all sweet and smiley faced, so either you ate a bag of rainbows before coming here, or you’re still happy from a fun ride.” The redhead gave Darlene a slightly more disbelieving look at that, and the hacker relented a little: “Fine, you have bite marks on your chest.”

“Oh, for the love of…” Alina rolled her eyes and pulled her hoodie’s zipper a little higher, “Okay, what is this about?” she asked, obviously figuring this was about Elliot somehow.

And it was probably very serious, considering Darlene’s expression softened and took on a worried note. “You see, Elliot is… well, by now you probably know that he’s got, uh… issues.” Understatement of the century probably, but still even with all that the hacker was an extraordinary person and Alina had grown fond even of the oddities in the short time they’d known each other, “The thing is… it runs deeper than one you’d think. Sometimes he… he’ll look like he’s talking to someone, or not paying attention…” It was obviously difficult for Darlene to discuss this without pain and the redhead extended a hand to rub her shoulder gently, which the hacker seemed to appreciate, “You’ll have to talk to him and if he wants to he’ll tell you more, but what you have to know… this ain’t just a shy boy with a bit of social anxiety. This is a serious, grown-ass man with a mind so complicated not even his own sister can fully understand it; and a truckload of shit to deal with.”

Nodding along, Alina kept listening, despite wanting to interrupt and assure the other she could handle this, it had obviously taken some thought on Darlene’s part about whether to disclose all of this or not, and she also genuinely wanted to know.

“What I’m saying is… don’t expect flowers, dates and usual lovey-dovey shit.” The redhead tried to actually open her mouth to protest that it wasn’t exactly her style either but Darlene held up a hand to silence her before she even began. “You know what I mean. There are things in his mind… probably too many. Expect silences and reserved companionship at best; and shouting bouts and disappearing acts at worst.”

Darlene thought back to Angela, how she tried to be Elliot’s close friends, all sweet smiles and quiet ‘support’… but it was a textbook kind of attitude, and no textbooks in the world could ever apply to her weird-ass brother. She sighed, in one last big breath. “You think you can deal with all that?”

It would have been easy to say yes, to try and play the saviour who would bring the troubled boy back to a normal life… but Alina didn’t believe in that crap, and she wasn’t sure Elliot actually needed any saving, as opposed as to some simple understanding –Darlene seemed to be doing a fine job, for example. That said… “I’m not sure.” She said, after taking a deep breath, “But I’m sure as hell willing to try.”

The way Darlene looked at her changed after that. The moody, almost disillusioned stare filled back with life and her lips turned upwards into a small smirk. “Cool.” She sentenced, nodding to herself as Flipper came back from the bushes, “I’ll take that.”

Elliot didn’t know whether to be happy or afraid at the way the two were smiling at each other when they headed back inside. He finished gathering everything he needed and set his countdown for the auto-leak. _Just in case._

“Ok here’s what we’re gonna do…” he started, packing his files and cds into his backpack, “They’re probably looking for us already, so I might as well let them find me and call them out…” not unlike the time he cornered the coffee shop owner who double-timed as a child pornography provider, “They won’t kill me, because I own their network now, so it’s just a matter of letting them know their money gets deleted as soon as they poke their noses out ever again.”

Darlene nodded, even though something told her it wouldn’t be that easy. It was the worst sensation ever, when everything seemed to be going according to plan and she had the prickling sensation they were just about to be screwed.

 

They were well on the way to the pub when Darlene’s prediction proved to be true, in the form of a face that wasn’t so familiar to her, but had Elliot stop in his tracks as soon as he saw the four men step out of the truck.

“Elliot, bro… what are you doing?” Vera spoke to him in a tone that was almost condescending, walking towards him with open arms, as if to hug him.

They were practically steps away from the pub, but Fernando and his buddy weren’t alone, and this time the girls did recognize two of the men they beat up at the club days before. Alina instinctually got in front of Elliot –a movement that absently reminded Darlene of the way her brother shielded Shayla from her, once, which was a funny parallel but she decided to not ponder the implications of that for now, since they were probably boned at the moment.

“What do you want?” the redhead seemed intent on confrontation, and Elliot momentarily wondered if she was out of her goddamn mind before his brain caught up to him.

“Darlene… this is going to get messy. Leave.” He whispered to his sister, just as Vera and his buddy closed in around Alina.

“So you’re the kung-fu chick, huh?”

Darlene observed the way the redhead puffed up her chest and tried her damnedest to piss the thugs off and wondered what the hell was she hoping to accomplish, but apparently Elliot had figured something out. “How?” she hissed back at him,

“As soon as it gets ugly. You can find us.”

Of course! Of fucking course, she and Alina had texted the day before, she had the redhead’s name and cell phone number, with any luck she’d be able to track it and she was the only one who’d be able to get them out of trouble as soon as they were done frying the network under these guys’ noses.

“Hey! Hey! I see you two scheming!” Vera’s buddy took a step forward, exposing the gun in his belt, “Cut the shit or I’ll—”

It was a perfect window for Alina to jump him and knee him in the groin. “Go!” she shouted at her, and against every fibre of her own body screaming at her to stick around and help her brother, Darlene hauled ass and started running.

“Stop that bitch!” Elliot wasn’t an expert fighter, heck he wasn’t a fighter at all, but he was a fast learner and so he ducked hi head and elbowed the guy moving to catch Darlene in the side before he could get to her. His sister disappeared in the streets and even though they were in deep shit he knew this could still work out.

Fernando’s friend was still on the floor trying to recover from the hit to the crotch, and he was tussling with one of the two guys he didn’t know From the corner of his eye, he could see Alina knocking a gun out of the third man’s hand, kicking it far away before punching the guy in the throat, right in the jugular.

“Okay, enough of this bullshit.” A sharp knock behind his head had Elliot nearly fainting, and he became vaguely aware that Vera had hit him with the butt of his gun, and now he and the man he was trying to beat up held him captive, one arm each. There was also something cold pressed against his temple. “Settle down, karate kid, or I’m blowing his fucking brains out.”

It was Fernando’s gun. _Shit._

The drug dealer pointed the weapon at Elliot right when the redhead was about to turn on them, having knocked out her two other opponents. She stopped dead in her tracks, not willing to test their resolve to shoot.

 

“Good girl. Show me your hands.”

She wanted so much to just kick the crap out of them, but raised her hands and stood still. Vera’s buddy, who was just getting his bearings back, had other ideas –men like him were often prone to childish and petty behaviour, to cover up how emasculated they felt whenever they couldn’t prevaricate others, and he was no different: “I’m gonna kill this bitch!”

He punched her in the face once, knocking her head to the side, and then kicked in the stomach to make her kneel. Alina didn’t retaliate, still very aware of the gun pointed at Elliot’s chest, and limited herself to falling and buckling as best as she could do minimize damage.

“TJ stop, don’t be a fucking idiot!” surprisingly, Vera didn’t allow his buddy to hit her while she was still down, possibly well aware of the fact that if she was seriously hurt, there was no way Elliot would solve the mess they were in, and even killing them both wouldn’t amount to much. “Yo, you’re pretty tough girl… I respect that.” He said, watching her pull herself up and just spit a little blood, still holding her head high. “What’s your name, girl?”

She kept her gaze locked with Elliot, those blue pools of his telepathically relaying a _We’re fucked, if we can’t pull this off we’re so fucked._ “…Alina.”

“Alina!” Fernando smiled, kind of like a child when he’s being indulged, “Nice name! I used to bang a girl with your same name! Know what it means?” when he was met with silence, his jaw tightened a little, “It means noble.” And then his lips twisted into a mean smirk, “Which is funny because so far all the girls I met with this name have been stupid whores.”

“Big talk from the dude who already got busted once.” At this point they were pretty obvious hostages, but she trusted Elliot to have a plan and kept provoking them, for the sake of keeping their anger turned at her.

“Yeah well, you’re in no position to speak, sister. Get in the truck.”

As Alina took a deep breath, still searching Elliot’s face for any hints that he did have some ideas, Fernando caught on their shared looks and decided he had enough, so he simply gestured to his other buddy to hit him again. “Get in the fucking truck!” he repeated, as the other guy punched the hacker in the side, getting the expected reaction from the redhead: her entire body momentarily twitched as if to rush to his help, only stopped by the gun’s presence.

As he caught his breath, she relented and stepped into the truck, as their captors also shoved Elliot in and started driving. The redhead hoped to high heaven that their captors wouldn’t think of taking her phone, because it would be the only way Darlene could track them and get them out, once they were done with their little confrontation.

 

Darlene was panicking. Unable to resist, she went back to where they had been ambushed, only to find them all gone. For a moment, she didn’t have the slightest idea about what to do, because she knew those guys knew where Elliot lived, and probably also knew where Alina lived, but she needed a computer to start tracking the redhead’s phone… of course, she also needed to get the hell out of there. She had to think fast, couldn’t stay crouched on the pub’s backdoor stairs much longer.

“What are you doing still here?” the voice nearly made her jump out of her skin, and it was a huge relief to see Alina’s brunette co-worker.

“I don’t…” she brought her hands to her face for a second, running her fingers through her hair to try and think more clearly, “I need to go…”

Lisa practically hauled her up by the shoulders. “Yes, you do! Fred was inside the pub when the whole little show happened and he’s coming around to double check this place.” She informed her, tugging her away from the door, “I can stall him, but you need to go. And don’t go to Alina’s place either.”

That shook Darlene out of her panic. “Gotcha. Thank you.” She nodded at the waitress, and would be in serious awe of how willing she was to help without even knowing what was up. A bit like their redhead friend.

Lisa nodded back, smirking. “Just fucking go. Scram!”

Darlene was out of there just in time to faintly hear the sound of the backdoor opening, probably revealing Fred about to start harassing Lisa. She just hoped the guy wouldn't hurt her, but couldn’t stop to think about that for now. So, Elliot’s place was out of the question, as was Alina’s… she couldn’t risk sitting around in a public place while hacking with a gang of drug dealers still looking around for her… which left her no choice. Arcade it was.

“What the—”

“Not now Romero, I need a terminal, I got shit to do.” She rushed to the first running machine and took the man’s place, not caring about whatever he was doing.

Neither Mobley nor Romero though much of her attitude at first, chalking it up to Darlene’s usual temper; it was Trenton who was by her side immediately. “What’s happening?”

“I need to track a phone.” She absentmindedly answered, too nervous to bother with secrecy. Trenton watched her fumble a bit with this proxy or other, before booting up the laptop next to hers to help her.

“Come on, talk to me, I’m entering the phone company’s network to access the gps services.” She pressed on, fingers dancing across the keyboard and eyes darting to her occasionally.

“This is so fucked you should never even have seen this.”

Trenton bit her lips. Something was definitely up and it probably was no good, but for Darlene to be this upset it had to mean that Elliot not only was in danger, but she also wasn’t sure they could get out of the situation. And after all that, Darlene was still thinking about not involving her to keep her safe. “I think it’s a little late for that. Come on.”

As they worked together, they accessed the tracking service for Alina’s phone much more quickly and Darlene slowly started feeling more confident. “Fine. But you’re not gonna like this.”

 

They ended up in a warehouse of sorts. Elliot vaguely recognized the area on the way there; they weren’t far off from the tattoo parlour. Ironically, he even remembered which i.p. address this location used. Not that it was going to do him any good as long as he still had a gun pointed to his head.

“So… I’m assuming you did your little hacker thing this time too, huh?” Vera started, as his guys sat them on two chairs in the middle of the rundown, leaky basement, “So we can’t off you just yet. Right?”

Elliot only narrowed his eyes at him, while Alina was admittedly confused by the dealer’s words –up until now, she hadn’t been aware of the fact this wasn’t the first time the hacker had a confrontation with these guys.

“C’mon, man… talk to me, you know we can do this the easy way… or the hard way.” Fernando nodded at one of his guys, who grabbed Alina by the arms and forced her to stand up.

“Don’t fucking touch me.” She protested, shaking out of his grip and assuming guard position, but not hitting anyone yet –she was actually terrified, one wrong move and they would shoot them both in the face, but her attitude was about the only thing she had going on for her right now, so she had to keep the butch front up.

Vera was just laughing bitterly at the whole scene. So much so that Elliot was beginning to think he was stoned. It was almost good, the less lucid their captor was, the more likely they were to exploit him. He just had to think fast.

“You want to talk? Let’s talk.” He said, trying to hide the falter in his voice at being held captive. He barely tolerated light touch; a person behind him physically pinning down his shoulders to a chair was excruciatingly uncomfortable. He reminded himself to breathe. “Yes, I hacked your entire network again. I expelled your administrator from all the servers and now I have control over everything.”

Fernando just smirked at him. “You hear that, chief?”

The man entered into view from the only other door visible in the space. He threw a distasteful look towards Alina as he passed her. “Oh… I remember this little slut.” He said, grabbing her chin.

As she instinctively slapped his hand away and moved to hit him, the guy restraining Elliot just took hold of him by the collar and pulled back a fist, ready to strike. She dropped hers –apparently these guys weren’t as dumb as they looked.

She could probably take two or three of them out before someone managed to take aim with a gun, but she wouldn’t be able to prevent a shot sooner or later and they couldn’t risk that. Also there was no guarantee they wouldn’t just start torturing Elliot to get back at her, or vice versa.

“So…” the chief continued, moving to stand in front of the hacker, “You have my network in your little pocket, huh? Well, I got your little girlfriend here. If you want her in one piece, I suggest you give it back.”

Elliot mustered up as much confidence as he was capable of –which admittedly wasn’t much, but he could make himself look intimidating enough if he lost his gaze into nothingness and let all his little neuroses loose on his face. “You touch a hair on her head, and your entire source of profit gets _unmade_. I have it all on a countdown that automatically sends all evidence to the police, included the location for this place, if I don’t continuously stop the timer, so if something happens to me, you also lose everything. I’m the only one who has access to the countdown, so if I decide to not reset it your money and your life get _deleted_.”

He had an irritating sensation of dejá-vu. The last time he made this speech it still didn’t end too well for him, but at least this time the other person involved was alive and in front of his eyes, so they couldn’t be fooling him into working for them even though they had no hostages to bargain. _This’ll work. You got this, you got this, you got this._

Fernando seemed ridiculously ecstatic about this. “Shit, what’d I tell you, chief? This guy got nuts!” he commented, creeping closer to Elliot and nudging the barrel of his gun on the other’s cheekbone, “Remember what happened last time you tried to pull this stunt, bro?”

Alina frowned visibly at that. She wanted so badly to ask for an explanation but didn’t want to risk giving their captors a chance at making them lower their guard. But Vera caught the look on her face and suddenly she didn’t have to ask. “Oh, I bet he didn’t tell you, huh girl?” he said, mocking evident in his tone, “Did he tell you about last time he tried to play hero for a girl? Do you know how the pretty thang who was there before you died because of him?”

The redhead couldn’t help the surprise crossing her eyes, and it sent Fernando into fits of laughter. She didn’t have all the specifics, but from what little she had seen and Vera’s words just now she could sort of piece together what happened. Why didn’t Elliot tell her from the start? Did he think she would blame him for Shayla’s death? Was she going to? Her breath quickened and Elliot tried to get her attention.

“Alina, don’t…” they locked eyes again, “I was going to tell you—”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re gonna kiss and make up and then you’ll make sweet love and shit.” The chief interrupted, punching the hacker across the face, “But first you’re gonna give me my operation back, or else you can kiss your ass goodbye.”

The redhead tried to get closer again, to try and defend him, but TJ finally pulled out his gun and pointed it at her. In the meantime, Elliot looked up at the chief and Vera. “And I told you, if anything happens to us, you all lose everything, and this time no one will bust out any of you.”

They were at a literal standstill, and Elliot looked around, wracking his brain for anything that could give them the upper hand in this. He could only see leaky pipes, rusty gasoline barrels in the corners, oil stains on the ground and corroded gas lines through the entrance.

Actually, the entire place smelled like lighter fuel –which, with guns being waved around, was a disaster waiting to happen. Until something much better than a disaster showed its beautiful face.

The metallic sound of the entrance door being picked echoed through the basement, making all the people inside switch their attention to that, and Darlene stepped inside –what not even Elliot could have foreseen was that Trenton was with her, and with the unpredictability that characterized her, she simply stood silently beside Darlene, looking to one side as she spoke.

“What’s up, motherfuckers?” she yelled, nodding at Trenton to her left “Anyone with a death wish today?”

Her partner in crime seemed to have the same idea, as she kicked the nearest gas pipe she could see as hard as she could, shutting the door behind them. Considering the size of the place, they had about ten minutes before the gas would start making them feel woozy.

_Fuck, she looks innocent but she really is dangerous._

“First son of a bitch to fire a gun is gonna blow this whole shithole to pieces, now!” Darlene continued, crossing her arms and stepping forward. “So how about you boys drop you toys and we settle this like adults?”

It lasted a moment, she would’ve missed if she hadn’t been desperate for an opening ever since this whole situation started; but Alina saw TJ lower the arm that was holding the gun and quickly pondered the odds.

It was kill or be killed anyway, and her opponents probably wouldn’t shoot now, for the sake of not blowing themselves up. She squared her shoulders and made her decision, looking one last time at Elliot, trying to convey one message: _take cover._

And then she attacked.

 

_~tbc_


	11. cl3an.s1at3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get decided, in one last confrontation to wipe the slate clean.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap I swear I didn't know this was going to be the last chapter until I finished writing it.  
> I wrote "the end" with a question mark only because... well, it's up to the reader what happens next.  
> I just hope it doesn't look rushed, because it sure as heck wasn't, it took me so long to piece together... either way, this is as good as it's gonna get. And I know there's like a million questions left as it is... but that's the beauty of it, is it not?  
> Either way... I hope you enjoyed the ride. And thanks for sticking with me through it and helping me get over my massive writer's block.

It was a split-second decision. It was probably a stupid decision, but what choice did they really have?

 _Shit we’re going to die here._ And other similar thoughts jumbled together in Elliot’s mind, before they collectively settled. _Fuck this._ They didn’t really have anything to lose and he basically jumped Vera, against obvious weight class odds and his better judgement, since Alina had knocked the gun out of TJ’s hand and they were about to kick the shit out of each other.

He couldn’t let Fernando take advantage of that to murder another person he cared about.

The other guys didn’t sit on their hands either, closing in on Darlene and Trenton to get a hold of them, but not only had Darlene learned a few tricks from Alina, folding her body on herself not to offer any openings before she delved out her elbow in the tender part of her attacker’s side, but Trenton just picked up one of the many gasoline containers strewn about and sprayed both men with it, fishing out a zippo and pointedly opening the lid, silently daring them to move a muscle.

Barely catching the scene with the corner of his eye, Elliot distantly thought that Mr. Robot had been right about her –but right now he had his hands full, and not in the nice way.

“You slippery bitch!” TJ, for all his size, was struggling against the redhead, who kneed him in the chest once, just strong enough to make him bend over, and used him as a perch to fly up and land a kick in the face of the guy behind him, that was also trying to rush her.

Vera managed to shake Elliot off his shoulders and punch him in the jaw. “Elliot, my man…” he drawled, almost affectionately, and the fact that in some twisted way Vera thought they were buddies was far scarier than the fact that he was trying to kill him, “Brave… and stupid.” He grabbed him by the hoodie and hauled him up; but the hacker wasn’t about to give up that easily, whether it was courage, desperation, or the gas starting to seriously fuck with his thought process, he decided to keep fighting and rammed both hands in the crook of Fernando’s elbows, freeing himself enough to see the chief deciding to join in the fight and charging towards Alina, knife in hand.

She was still a bit busy, taking down a guy like TJ in hand to hand combat was a bit of a feat, but it was a lucky break that they were all too afraid to blow up to pick up their guns. In the end she took a few punches and a kick in the stomach while she was down, but she managed to sweep the man’s feet under him and elbow him thrice in the throat, gulps of gas-infested air helping in making him pass out. Alina herself was fighting with a forearm over her face, to filter the air some, but she too knew they had to wrap this up quickly or they’d be fucked.

Elliot was all but tumbling to the ground with Vera, exchanging blind punches as he watched chief charged in, confident she was distracted with the men now falling at her feet, and attempted to stab her somewhere in the torso. She didn’t dodge the knife coming towards her, but the hacker watched her sidestep slightly and engulf the chief’s arm in her own and trapping him in a lock as she brought him down with her, using his own momentum and twisting his arm towards the inside. A few drops of blood splattered around and the redhead got up, arms crossed on her chest, and called out to Vera, voice rough and strained from gas and fatigue. “Hey, asshole!” she yelled, stepping in between him and Elliot, “How about I show you who the stupid whore is?”

Fernando’s response was a callous laughter and a punch she barely blocked –being as batshit crazy as the man was came with the advantage of being way more fierce in a fight than your average drug dealer, he didn’t just throw hits around to defend himself or take you down, he meant to hurt, to dish out serious pain. And it was probably that ferocity combined with the fact that the redhead was already exhausted, that enabled Vera to grab her by the neck and slam her into a pillar.

Elliot was about to rush to her help, but was grabbed at the ankles and shoved down by the chief –the man was still alive, Alina had knifed him in the side but it was nothing too bad, he’d probably live. He was certainly living enough to still be a fucking problem.

“Okay, enough of this shit, nobody move a muscle or we blow up this place like a fucking firecracker!” it was Darlene’s voice who saved them both, catching everyone’s attention and making them focus with a nod on Trenton, arm still extended and thumb hovering dangerously on the zippo’s wheel. “Give it up, suckers. It’s over.”

Chief froze, and Vera was distracted enough for Alina to knee him in the stomach just hard enough to make him slump forward, and then elbowed him twice in the space between the neck and the shoulder, making him fall flat for good.

“Now step back.” Darlene ordered, side by side with Trenton who still stood quiet, but had a threatening glint in her gaze that suggested she would definitely blow shit up if people didn’t follow her friend’s orders. The men were forced to raise their hands and let Elliot and Alina join the other two closer to the exit. Only then Trenton opened the door, clean air from outside bringing them relief but not quite dissipating the gas yet.

Elliot hesitated on the doorstep, and turned around.

“Your lives are over.” He sentenced, steeling his eyes to look as cold and as big as he could from his vantage point, side by side with Alina who was hugging her sides –probably desperate for some fresh air. “And so help me; anyone you send after us will be deleted from the face of Earth.”

The hacker only hoped the guy’s sidekicks would live to tell the tale –no one would be willing to associate with them, after they learn they’d go against someone who could take everything away from them with a few clicks.

Darlene was the one who startled him out of his rage, patting him affectionately on an arm and nodding towards Alina, who was facing outside already and taking big gulps of air, visibly about to collapse. They got the hell out of there, and while Darlene closed the heavy door behind her, muttering “Good fucking riddance”, Elliot shook his head at her, grabbing a rock to throw it at one of the window and let some air pass through.

“We’re not killing anyone.” He didn’t like the idea of criminals knowing that some guy named Elliot was a hacker; but details would get fuzzy with recounting and hopefully the one thing that would stick would be don’t fucking mess with the guy, he’s vicious. He raised his gaze towards his sister. “But thanks for coming to save our asses.”

Darlene smiled at him. “We’re a team, aren’t we?” and to Elliot’s surprise, Mobley and Romero were just pulling up in what probably was a stolen SUV.

He wanted to make some sort of objection, tell them that they shouldn’t have come… but it was over anyway, and they did need the ride home. It still didn’t stop the completely speechless look from plastering on his face.

“Jeez, kid, you really thought we wouldn’t come get you?” Romero shook his head at him, arms crossed, but then took a look at Alina. “And not a moment too soon.”

That remark didn’t make sense to Elliot until the redhead leaned heavily on his shoulder, one hand covering her side. It was stained red.

 _Fuck._ His mind went back to the red splatter from the fight with chief. _No, no, no, I saw him on the floor and bleeding, she definitely knifed him…_ Thinking it over, she did have to practically hug the man’s arm to dislodge the weapon from his hold.

The pained groan who came from his left and the sudden weight shifting on him as Alina lost balance startled Elliot out of the how and why. _Shit, shit, shit._ He held her and put her down as gently as he could, taking her head into his lap and looking up at the guys, anyone who could help because fuck, she was bleeding and this couldn’t be happening, not again, not now.

Mobley was the first to rush in to help, checking the redhead’s pulse and gently prying her hand away to check the wound. “It doesn’t look too bad.” He said, adjusting his glasses with his free hand, “She’ll need stitches, but she’ll live.”

“If we patch her up quick.” Added Romero, producing a handkerchief from his pocket and handing it over to Elliot, “Keep some pressure on that and let’s get her to the car, I got things we cn use at my place.”

Hospitals probably weren’t a good idea right now, but Elliot still wished they were anywhere else but there… Especially when a second car pulled up and Fred got out of it, dragging out a slightly beaten up Lisa. “Remember me, you little bitch?”

Alina wasn’t sure she could even see him. The cut wasn’t too deep and her life wasn’t in danger, but all the gas she inhaled and the minutes upon minutes the stab wound had been neglected definitely took their toll on her. Even so, she nodded at Elliot and made him help her up, briefly covering his hand with hers as she took hold of the pressure for her side.

“I’m sorry.” Lisa muttered, as the man held her at gunpoint.

“Don’t worry, Liz… I’m not gonna let him do anything to you.” The redhead said, choking out a few of the words, but still sounding as firm as one could be in her shoes. Fixing her stare on Fred, she took a shaky breath and continued. “What do you think you’re doing? It’s over.”

“Not if I kill you lot where you stand.”

“Actually it’s over anyway.” Darlene supplied, stepping forward to stand beside Alina, “Cops are on their way and they’ll bust you all. We leaked everything.”

She was bluffing, the timer wasn’t out yet and Elliot hadn’t given the manual command yet… but he figured Fred didn’t need to know that, and as he got up he put his hands in his hoodie pockets, feeling for his phone and hoping it hadn’t broken in the fight.

Fred hesitated. He seemed to be deciding whether to risk calling Darlene’s bluff or just giving up and getting the hell out, but in the end, frustration and anger won: he shifted targets, pointing his gun towards Alina’s head. “Well then it won’t matter if I kill you anyway.” In full taking-my-enemy-down-with-me fashion, the man took aim, but before he could shoot a painful hit in his stomach made him double over and drop the gun.

Lisa stepped away from him as fast as she could, after elbowing him in the ribs as soon as the gun wasn’t on her anymore. “Holy shit I did it.”

Fred was about to try and reach for the gun again, but Alina took what was left of her strength and leapt forward again, kicking it away from him with her heel –it slid back, far enough for Darlene to pick it up and point it at the man.

“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay the fuck down.”

Disarmed and outnumbered, he couldn’t do much else, and he put his hands behind his head in surrender. Elliot breathed a sigh of relief and activated the leak remotely through his phone, as inconspicuously as he could.

Trenton started helping Alina towards the car, with Mobley and Romero following suit. Lisa was the last one to speak to Fred, before heading away: “You were ruining my life. Enjoy yours locked up.”

She decided to take Fred’s car, just to be sure to leave him with no immediate escape or means to follow him, and their goodbye was rushed at best, considering Alina’s immediate need for medical attention, but she still managed to stutter out an apology: “Sorry for being a shitty friend, these last few days.”

Lisa shook her head. “Shut up. You can apologize to me again when you’re not bleeding.”

Really, standing at gunpoint and/or getting stabbed seriously helped put things into perspective. Darlene looked out at the waitress, from her position beside Alina in the seat. “Sorry for getting you into trouble… and thanks.” After all, Lisa got caught by Fred while stalling him for Darlene’s sake. Still, the woman didn’t seem to think the same way.

“Hey, you got him out of my life for good. It was worth a few blows.” She assured, closing the door when Elliot got in on Alina’s other side, “Now hurry the fuck up, you’ve got a wounded.”

The last they saw of Lisa was her retreating back as she entered Fred’s car. With any luck, it would be the last time in her life she ever did that.

 

They ended up driving to the Arcade, which was closest from where they were, and picking up a first-aid kit on the way to stitch Alina’s wound there.

“How… how does it look?” Elliot hovered around, jittery and anxious, piercing gaze darting from the redhead, to his surroundings, and back to Romero. He had gotten especially nervous when Alina started to lose consciousness, as a consequence of fatigue and blood loss, and was torn between trying to keep her awake and not wanting to get in the way.

Romero waited until the last stitch was in place, before cutting the wire and turning to reassure him. “Relax, kid. Dunno where this chick came from, but she’s tough as nails.” He said, dropping a pat on the shoulder that Elliot didn’t completely flinch out of, if only for lack of concentration.

Still, it painted a small smile on Romero’s lips, as he joined the others, waiting for a sounder explanation of whatever the hell happened, which would probably come from Darlene, considering Elliot was still very much focused on the semi-conscious Alina and wouldn’t come out of that kind of tunnel vision anytime soon.

And Darlene did explain a bit, talking about loose ends and past grudges and people who needed to disappear for good; and how that crazy redhead had been looking out for her brother’s ass in this misadventure.

“You alright?” he tried to ask her, after a while, receiving only a tired hum and closed eyes as a response.

“How do you think she is? She got stabbed! I told you she’d end up stabbed.”

Elliot nearly jumped out of his own skin at hearing Mr. Robot’s voice right beside him, but tried to keep his tone low. “Well she’s not dead. She won’t die.” He tried to sound as sure as he would have liked to be. “What do _you_ care, anyway?”

Real or vision, Mr. Robot rolled his eyes at him, leaning over Alina’s form, as if regarding her for a second, and then turning back to him. “I care because you care, kiddo. We’ve been over this.”

 _He’s right. I’m literally arguing with myself. Shit, I’m crazy._ Elliot’s mind was invaded with the usual train wreck of thoughts that followed every time Mr. Robot showed his face to him, _Is she really gonna die? Was the fighting too much? No, no, Romero patched her up, she’s gonna be fine._

“Is she? Is she really gonna be fine?” Mr. Robot asked, leaning against the little bowling strip Alina was laid upon, “Look at her. She worked shitty shifts at a shitty bar surrounded by shitty people… but she had a peaceful life. Now? Now she’s been through mob fights, kidnappings and stabbings. Things never stay the same after this kind of stuff.”

Elliot shook his head at him, eyes wide and disbelieving. “She’s been through worse. She’ll be fine.”

“No Elliot, that’s my freaking point. She was finally healing after all the horrible things that had happened to her, then _you_ came along and look! It’s back to square one!” Mr. Robot all but shouted, pacing up and down and throwing an arm towards the redhead’s figure.

“Shut up!” Elliot couldn’t help to shout back. Had he been able to think about this logically, he’d figure that it was his subconscious sense of guilt and desire to not get Alina anymore hurt than she had already been, even if that would mean walking away from the one good thing that happened to him ever since Shayla… but he was a coward, and didn’t want to.

 _I should, though… I should get the fuck out of her life before someone else decides to roundup my friends and blackmail me into something with their lives…_ But he had taken care of those loose ends, no one else would come looking for him, and they could concentrate on the follow up for their revolution... right?

The rest of the group glanced at him confusedly, with the exception of Darlene, who shot him a pained, almost sad look. He hated that look, he hated that she suffered because her brother was completely nuts and she couldn’t do anything to help him.

“Hey…” that small, strangled word alone was barely audible, but the soft tug of Alina’s fingers on his sleeve was enough to pull Elliot out of his musings –again. “Don’t… don’t listen to it.”

The hacker was so relieved to hear her voice that it took him a moment to genuinely be confused by her words. “What?” he found her hand tucked in his and distantly wondered how he could not even have registered taking it.

“Whatever it is you’re shouting at… don’t listen to it.” She repeated, trying to focus her gaze on him and sitting up a little –he instantly came to her help, guiding her shoulders up with his free arm, “We did the right thing.”

Elliot cast a sideways glance at Mr. Robot’s figure, then back at Alina. That was completely blowing his mind –this, and only this, was what made Alina different from anyone he ever met. Not the Muay Thai black belt, not the red hair; but this: the same quiet acceptance that allowed her to expose herself without reserve and without fear, the acknowledgement of things she may not quite understand or change, but that she was still willing to roll with. When Elliot turned his head again, Mr. Robot was gone for the day. _I don't know how you do it, but screw it, I don't wanna give this up._

He dared a caress to the less busted side of her face, feeling the tiniest hint of a smile on his lips. “How are you feeling?”

She nodded at him and sat up a bit more, looking up when she heard Trenton’ quiet murmur of “Hey, she’s up”, to see the rest of the guys walk up to them. Still, she took the time to cover Elliot's hand with hers.

"I'll be alright." she whispered, and they ocked eyes for a second, carrying all the things they weren't saying to each other -it didn't matter. They had all the time in the world, to learn how to do that.

Darlene gave her a particularly wide smile, as she looked at the two of them, and then placed a laptop on her lap. “Check this out.”

It was playing the news of the gang’s arrest, with the speaker drawling on about how important the arrest was because of the massive amount of evidence collected and how inescapable the criminals’ charges were. Darlene looked pretty proud, and definitely relieved, as she swung an arm around Trenton’s shoulders. “We did it.”

Alina watched the screen for a second, barely believing she was finally free of those sleazebags –and that Lisa would finally be safe, too – but then started registering the place and people she had around, and just had to ask. “How… how long have I been in and out?” she curiously eyed all the videogames and the computers strewn about on the tables, “What is this place?”

“A bit.” Finally, Elliot spoke up. Taking a deep breath, he looked around at the others, before clearing his voice. “I guess this is as good a time as any. Guys, this is Alina… I’m sure Darlene told you the gist of what happened.” A couple nods and quiets hums let him know he could go on. “Alina, these are Romero, Mobley and Trenton.” He introduced, giving the redhead time to look at each one of them, “And, well, you know Darlene.”

Alina nodded as Darlene winked at her, sitting up better and only stopping at the stinging in her side, which made her falter a little but Elliot’s hand on her shoulder steadied, and she could see the others looking at her with varying degrees of concern. She tried to appraise them, feeling almost lost in the surreal atmosphere surrounding the place, she felt like she was in a grotesque, modern Wonderland of sorts and couldn't quite place her own emotions, but then a tiny smile on Trenton’s lips caught her eye and made her smile reflexively, turning it on Elliot as he spoke again.

“Welcome to fsociety.”

 

_~the end?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...aaaand this is it.  
>  Again, I hoped I did the characters justice and that the ending is satisfying for the people who were reading it... this is seriously all my hands conceded to me, as it came out like this and it doesn't look like it's gonna change.  
> I'm quite happy with it, to be honest. I hope you guys are too.  
> Well... thanks again for sticking with me.  
> See you with whatever I'll write next.


End file.
